SOCIAL   HISTORIANS 

BY 
HARRY  AUBREY  TOULMIN,  JR. 

Member  of  the  American  Academy  of  Political  and. 

Social  Science,  of  the  American  Political  Science 

Association,  and  of  the  Virginia 

Historical  Society 


AN  INTRODUCTION  BT 

CHARLES  W.  KENT 

Professor  of  English  Literature  in  the 
University  of  Virginia 


RICHARD  G.  BADGER 

THE  GORHAM  PRESS 

BOSTON 


COPYRIGHT,  1911 
BY  HARRY  AUBREY  TOULMIN,  JR. 

All  Rights  Reserved 


THE  GORHAM  PRESS,  BOSTON,  U.S.  A. 


9/3 


TO 

MY  MOTHER  AND  FATHER 

THIS   BOOK   IS 
AFFECTIONATELY    DEDICATED 


241166 


i 


INTRODUCTION 

South  with  its  romance,  first,  of  po- 
litical power  and,  then,  of  defeat  and 
sorrow  has  always  attracted  attention, 
but  never  more  so  than  now  when  to  its 
unique  and  absorbing  history  it  has  added  a 
marvelous  resiliency  and  a  regnant  optimism. 
It  seems  now  on  the  eve  of  unprecedented 
prosperity.  Coincident  with  this  good  for- 
tune of  slow  but  assured  growth,  there  has 
come  an  unexpected  and  surprising  political  up- 
heaval that  has  suddenly  thrust  Southern  men,  and 
specifically  University  of  Virginia  men,  into  con- 
spicuous leadership  and  power.  Our  interest, 
therefore,  inevitably  and  instinctively  turns  from 
the  past  with  its  determined  record  to  the  imme- 
diate future  with  its  unusual  opportunities  and  un- 
solved problems.  "  What  will  the  South  do  with 
them?  "  is  the  question  uttered  or  unf ormulated ; 


INTRODUCTION 

and  to  this  question,  the  answer  not  of  conjecture 
but  of  fact  is  anxiously  awaited. 

While  we  wait  we  are  not  remiss  in  inquiring 
into  the  recent  history  of  the  South  and  especially 
into  its  social  upheavals  and  readjustments  and  its 
present  condition.  Of  these  things  history  has 
comparatively  little  to  say  ;  for  history  delays 
until  the  passage  of  time  shall  have  thrown  into 
clear  relief  the  life  it  records.  By  that  time  the 
events  of  significance  have  become  separated  from 
the  conditions  that  made  them  possible  and  seen 
in  perspective  are  so  prominent  and  important 
that  they  alone  seem  worthy  of  preservation.  It 
is  for  this  reason  that  we  constantly  revert  to  con- 
temporary letters  and  diaries  and  biographies  and, 
especially,  fiction  for  the  right  revelation  of  the 
social  and  domestic  life  of  the  people. 

But  success  in  giving  a  true  value  to  this  inti- 
mate, personal,  and  moulding  element  of  our  lit- 
erature depends,  in  the  last  analysis,  upon  the 
knowledge  and  sympathy  of  these  writers.  This 
knowledge  and  sympathy  must  not  be  the  result 
of  a  detached  and  objective  study;  however  con- 

vi 


INTRODUCTION 

trolled  this  may  be  by  calm  and  even  justice  or 
however  directed  to  a  right  understanding.  On 
the  contrary  any  true  picture  must  come  from 
intimate  knowledge  and  sympathy  based  upon 
personal  experience  and  long  associations.  In  so 
far  as  writers  are  the  legitimate  spokesmen  for 
their  people,  in  so  far  are  they  protected  from 
misrepresentations  and  authorized  to  speak  with- 
out any  reserve  save  that  dictated  by  good  taste. 

But  there  is  at  least  one  other  requirement  for 
writers  who  essay  interpretations  of  life  in  a  com- 
munity or  section,  or,  for  that  matter,  any  inter- 
pretation at  all,  and  that  is  that  besides  being 
intelligent  and  appreciative  they  must  be  skillful 
in  utterance. 

It  would,  indeed,  be  difficult  to  find  a  group  of 
writers  more  fully  meeting  these  conditions  than 
these  "  Social  Historians  "  as  they  are  aptly  called 
by  Mr.  Toulmin.  They  are  all  writers  of  keen 
and  penetrating  intelligence,  and  of  distinct  and 
noteworthy  ability  and  talent.  With  possibly 
one  exception,  they  are  intimately  sympathetic 
and  frankly  appreciative  in  their  work.  Their 

vii 


INTRODUCTION 

writings  are  none  the  less  sound  and  reliable  be- 
cause fascinating  in  literary  structure  and  finish; 
and  from  them  may  readily  be  had  a  true  and 
adequate  picture  of  the  life  they  so  skillfully  por- 
tray. 

Moreover  the  South  is  so  imperial  in  its  ter- 
ritorial sweep  that  there  is  little  overlapping  in 
the  regions  or  classes  covered  by  these  writers. 
On  the  contrary  they  supplement  one  another, 
though  all  of  them  together  do  not  fully  represent 
this  whole  section.  They  are,  however,  thor- 
oughly representative  in  character  and  afford 
abundant  material  for  sound  conclusions.  The 
judgments  of  Mr.  Toulmin  may  not  always  be 
accepted  in  full,  but  they  are  based  on  first-hand 
consideration  of  the  books  under  discussion  and 
supported  by  well-grounded  reasons. 

It  is  a  source  of  great  pride  and  pleasure  that 
our  young  men  are  becoming  more  and  more  in- 
terested in  our  American  writers,  and  that  out  of 
our  colleges  and  universities  are  coming  intelligent 
and  enthusiastic  students  of  present-day  conditions 
and  literature.  Mr.  Toulmin,  at  present  a  student 

viii 


INTRODUCTION 

in  the  University  of  Virginia,  has  commended 
himself  by  his  maturity  of  thought,  force  of  in- 
tellect, and  earnest  interest  in  the  things  of  the 
mind.  Though  he  has  elected  to  follow  an  exact- 
ing profession,  the  Law,  he  may  yet  achieve  in  the 
realm  of  literary  criticism  that  larger  success  of 
which  this  first  volume  is  a  promise  and  prediction. 

CHARLES  W.  KENT. 
April  1 3th,  1911. 


IX 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

INTRODUCTION v 

THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE '.  i 

GEORGE   WASHINGTON   CABLE 35 

CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 59 

JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 101 

JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 133 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 167 

APPENDIX 173 


XI 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 


"  Go  !  read  the  patent  of  thine  heritage, 

Inscribed  in  glowing  words  that  flash  and  burn 
With  pregnant  import.     Con  it  well  and  learn 

The  thrilling  tale  that  lights  the  storied  page." 

IT  is  primarily  Virginia  and  things  Virginian 
that  Thomas  Nelson  Page  has  devoted  his 
efforts  to  portray.     Born  on  the  old  planta- 
tion of  Oaklands  in  Hanover  County  on  the 
twenty-third  of  April,    1853,  he  was  enabled  to 
attain    sufficient    age    to    appreciate    the    subse- 
quent series  of  the  war  time  incidents  and  become 
imbued  with  the  life  of  the  ante-bellum  regime; 
"  an  old  Virginia  home   recalled  from  memory 
stamped  with  it  when  it  was  yet  a  virgin  page," 
perhaps,  aptly  describes  in  the  author's  own  ex- 
pression his  opportunity  for  an  insight  into  the 
scenes  of  yesterday  that  he  has  so  fittingly  revivi- 
fied.    The  families  of  Nelson  and  Page  have  been 
for  decades  leaders  in  the  development  of  the 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

state,  moulding  her  policy  in  times  of  peace  and 
sending  defenders  of  her  borders  to  the  front 
in  successive  generations.  Generals,  governors, 
statesmen,  politicians  and  soldiers  have  come 
from  the  long  lines  of  these  illustrious  families. 
No  wonder  young  Page  developed  a  passion  for 
his  boyhood  home  and  life;  the  life  his  ancestors 
had  moulded  on  plantation  and  in  state;  a  life 
whose  policy  of  government  and  scheme  of  society 
owed  so  much  to  the  genius  of  their  creative 
powers. 

It  was  fitting  that  he  should  enter  the  univer- 
sity sponsored  by  Washington  and  endowed  by 
the  lofty  spirit  of  the  great  commander  —  Lee. 
Thomas  Nelson  Page  entered  this  university  in 
1869  and  remained  until  1872;  thereafter  he 
spent  some  time  in  Kentucky,  when  he  suddenly 
decided  to  enroll  in  the  department  of  law  at  the 
University  of  Virginia  in  1873,  thus  becoming  a 
member  of  the  class  of  that  year.  Here  he  sat 
under  John  B.  Minor,  who  "  taught  him  how  to 
work,"  and  graduated  in  a  little  over  one-half 
the  allotted  time  of  two  years. 

2 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

While  at  these  universities  he  exhibited  consid- 
erable aptitude  for  writing;  frequent  contributions 
of  his  were  published  in  the  university  magazines, 
he  himself  becoming  editor  of  the  Washington 
and  Lee  journal  during  his  last  year  there. 

The  South  has  had  no  illustrious  historian  to 
conceive  and  execute  a  narrative  worthy  to  stand 
as  an  impartial  record  of  her  career.  Notwith- 
standing, the  South  has  had  the  great  forerunners 
of  such  a  narrative  in  the  brilliant  series  of  men 
whose  contributions  to  literature  have  enlightened 
the  phases  of  the  departed  life  and  policy.  The 
scenes  of  "  Two  Old  Colonial  Places  "  and  "  Life 
in  Colonial  Virginia  "  are  laid  amid  the  glories 
of  the  days  of  the  distinguished  families  who  were 
the  progenitors  of  the  author;  he  writes  with  feel- 
ing of  the  stately  mansions  of  his  forefathers,  of 
their  life  and  manners,  of  the  Colonial  period 
wafting  back  "  a  breath  out  of  a  distant  time,  an 
odor  of  neglected  gardens."  He  betrays  the  lov- 
ing recollections  of  days  gone  by  and  the  memory 
of  the  grandeur  to  which  the  men  of  so  long  ago 
attained. 

3 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

The  scene  is  transferred  from  the  faces  and 
figures  of  Colonial  prosperity  to  the  chivalrous  life 
of  "  Before  the  War  "  in  the  heyday  of  Southern 
splendor  and  in  magnificence  of  the  baronial  land 
owners.  As  a  study  of  penetration  and  insight 
into  the  spirit  of  the  period,  must  be  the  judgment 
pronounced  upon  "  The  Old  Gentleman  of  the 
Black  Stock,"  and  particularly  upon  its  companion 
in  this  division  of  his  work,  "  Social  Life  Before 
the  War."  There  is  a  pride  of  race  and  love 
of  home  animating  every  line  of  these  delightful 
sketches.  The  forms  of  yesterday  rise  to  laugh 
and  chatter,  to  ride  their  famous  horses  through 
the  sinuous  byways  and  paths  of  the  nearly  virgin 
woodland  and  to  discuss  the  future  of  government, 
politics  and  law.  It  is  with  things  intimately  con- 
nected with  his  home  land  and  native  state  that 
Page  has  seen  fit  to  deal;  and  his  extensive  ex- 
perience and  close  association  with  actual  occur- 
rences has  enabled  him  to  portray  his  theme  more 
than  passing  well. 

Thomas  Nelson  Page  has  pictured  the  life  of 
the  Colonial  aristocracy  of  old  Hanover  county 

4 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

in  the  days  of  the  Nelsons  and  Pages;  he  has 
touched  with  pathos  and  love  the  glorious  realm 
of  ante-bellum  prosperity;  he  has  treated  with  deep 
feeling  the  sufferings  of  his  home  and  people  amid 
the  hostilities  of  contending  armies.  He  has  gone 
further,  he  has  grasped  the  ideas  thereafter  and 
the  policy  for  the  future.  Amid  all  this  he  is 
Virginian,  speaking  in  the  manner  and  way  of  the 
Virginia  gentleman  as  he  is,  courteous,  kindly, 
with  a  gift  of  humor  and  a  capacity  for  story  tell- 
ing that  is  modest,  well-bred,  never  bitter,  a  man 
of  large  heart  and  ample  views. 

The  most  puissant  individualism  of  Mr.  Page 
is  his  devotion  to  the  actual  incidents  of  his  scenes. 
Nowhere  has  the  function  of  these  so-called  so- 
cial  historians  been  more  prominent  than  in  the 
semi-historical  sketches  of  colonial  and  ante-bellum 
life.  Essays  or  rambling  stories  of  pathos  and 
fine  good  nature  they  may  be,  yet  each  one  con- 
tributes its  quota  of  reminiscence.  The  veracity 
with  which  the  scenes  are  depicted  is  a  paramount 
consideration;  he  declares  for  it  in  his  introduc- 
tion, and  his  stories  ably  support  his  claim. 

5 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

In  the  small  volume,  Social  Life  in  Old  Vir- 
ginia Before  the  War,  Page  has  won  his  case. 
There  is  abundant  proof  that  he  possesses  admir- 
able knowledge  and  experience  from  which  to 
draw  a  profoundly  interesting  sketch.  A  fearless 
sincerity  matched  against  a  potent  sympathy  bal- 
ances the  scale  in  such  measure  as  to  insure  accu- 
racy as  well  as  freedom  from  prejudice.  What 
is  true  of  this  particular  essay  can  be  said  of  the 
major  portion  of  his  work.  Amidst  the  contend- 
ing factions  of  fact  and  fancy,  he  has  skillfully 
maintained  his  poise.  As  Matthew  Arnold  re- 
marked of  Anna  Karenina  that  we  are  not  to  un- 
derstand it  "  As  a  work  of  art;  we  are  to  take  it 
as  a  piece  life  " ;  in  a  similar  attitude  the  efforts 
of  Page  should  be  viewed.  He  has,  however, 
like  Tolstoi,  a  claim  to  both. 

The  attraction  on  reading  this  account  of  social 
life  in  Virginia  in  ante-bellum  times  may  be  at 
first  insensible.  The  charm  is  gradual,  but  none 
the  less  efficacious  when  it  finally  takes  full  pos- 
session. The  melody  of  the  harvest  songs  drifts 
back  with  a  whiff  of  that  olden  time ;  the  cadence 

6 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

of  "  Cool  Water  "  clings  like  an  echo  in  the  mem- 
ory of  all  who  read.  You  find  yourself  becoming 
an  ardent  adherent  of  that  dominion  of  the  past 
where  the  manor  house  was  a  home  supreme  "  en- 
throned in  perpetual  tranquillity."  It  is  pleasing 
to  think  that  the  charm  of  those  bygone  days  has 
not  been  dissipated  on  the  winds  or  now  rests  for- 
ever alone  in  a  musty  record  on  the  dusty  book- 
shelves of  a  chance  collector.  The  melody  of 
forgotten  hours  has  floated  down  the  decades  in 
the  hearts  of  the  Southern  people  giving  them, 
perhaps,  something  of  a  greater  sensibility  to 
gayety,  wider  receptiveness  in  matters  of  sympa- 
thy. The  complete  record  lies  in  this  short 
sketch. 

That  the  record  is  not  as  perfect  as  he  would 
wish,  the  author  regretfully  concedes.  In  the  na- 
ture of  things  it  could  not  be  so.  His  service  as  a 
chronicler  of  the  past  is  not  less  important.  A 
full  idea  is  obtained  of  the  ampleness  and  the  re- 
finement of  this  genuinely  wholesome  existence  in 
a  manner  that  can  scarce  be  found  elsewhere,  from 
this  tale  of  the  "  People  whose  fortitude  in  defeat 

7 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

has  ever  been  more  splendid  than  their  valor  in 
war,"  as  also  of  the  character  of  their  life  before 
that  appalling  disaster,  which  exhibited  examples 
worthy  of  emulation  in  these  modern  days  of  rush- 
ing materialism,  domestic  infelicity  and  marital 
discord.  In  his  concluding  sentence  of  this  book 
Mr.  Page  remarks :  "  The  ivory  palaces  have 
been  destroyed,  but  myrrh,  aloes,  and  cassia  still 
breathe  amid  their  dismantled  ruins. "  Chiefest 
of  its  virtues  lay  in  being  a  life  without  show  or 
pretence. 

"  In  Ole  Virginia  "  is  an  epic  in  dialect  litera- 
ture. Whether  as  a  creation  or  a  portrayal,  as 
you  will,  the  series  of  stories  beginning  with  the 
famous  "  Mars'  Chan "  stands  preeminently  a 
production  of  consummate  workmanship  and  in- 
finite skill  of  handling.  It  is  upon  these  several 
papers  bearing  the  breath  of  a  life  gone  to  join 
the  shades  of  the  actors  once  in  its  scenes,  that  the 
fame  of  Page  has  long  rested.  The  author  ex- 
tracts the  essence  of  romance  and  picturesqueness 
from  the  existence  he  has  known,  relates  it  in  an 
intricate  dialect  that  reveals  the  homely  philoso- 

8 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

phy  of  a  departing  type.     It  is  vitally  human  and 
the  humanity  is  powerfully  felt. 

The  celebrated  "  Mars'  Chan  "  had  a  most  un- 
common origin  as  expressed  in  the  author's  own 
words.  "  Just  then  a  friend  showed  me  a  letter 
which  had  been  written  by  a  young  girl  to  her 
sweetheart  in  a  Georgia  regiment,  telling  him  that 
she  had  discovered  that  she  loved  him,  after  all, 
and  that  if  he  would  get  a  furlough  and  come 
home  she  would  marry  him;  that  she  had  loved 
him  ever  since  they  had  gone  to  school  together 
in  the  little  schoolhouse  in  the  woods.  Then,  as 
if  she  feared  such  a  temptation  might  be  too  strong 
for  him,  she  added  a  postscript  in  these  words: 
*  Don't  come  without  a  furlough;  for  if  you  don't 
come  honorable,  I  won't  marry  you.'  This  letter 
had  been  taken  from  the  pocket  of  a  private  dead 
on  the  battlefield  of  one  of  the  battles  around 
Richmond,  and,  as  the  date  was  only  a  week  be- 
fore the  battle  occurred,  its  pathos  struck  me  very 
much.  I  remember  I  said  :  *  The  poor  fellow 
got  his  furlough  through  a  bullet.'  The  idea  re- 
mained with  me,  and  I  went  to  my  office  one  morn- 

9 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

ing  and  began  to  write  '  Mars'  Chan/  which  was 
finished  in  about  a  week. 

It  is  a  story  of  both  battlefield  and  crucifix. 
Above  all  it  may  claim  to  be  a  powerful  homily 
on  the  justice  of  divine  arrangement,  on  the  con- 
ception that  there  is  indeed  that  refuge  called  the 
"  Peace  of  God."  This  tragedy  does  what  vol- 
uminous sermons  or  labored  theological  treatises, 
or  the  dogmas  of  many  creeds  fail  to  do.  It  holds 
concretely,  within  the  confines  of  flesh  and  blood, 
the  reasonableness  of  belief  in  such  refuge  of  per- 
petual felicity.  Faith,  devotion,  love,  —  a  trinity 
to  support  the  world,  are  all  intrinsic  parts  of 
Mars'  Chan. 

While  old  black  Sam  does  not  play  a  title  role, 
he  is,  nevertheless,  the  unconscious  hero.  Such 
devotion  as  he  exhibits  in  those  few  short  pages 
would  do  ample  credit  to  hosts  of  those  of  far 
greater  pretension  and  claim  to  gentility.  He 
demonstrated  that  he  was  devoted  in  a  practical 
manner.  Sam  was  evidently  a  finished  diplomat 
by  nature.  His  was  a  master  hand  that  brought 
about  a  reconciliation  between  Mars'  Chan's  fam- 

10 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

ily  and  Cun'l  Chamb'lin,  when  he  had  a  letter 
written  to  the  black  maid  of  Miss  Anne  relating 
the  incident  of  Mr.  Ronny's  punishment  at  the 
hands  of  Mars'  Chan  for  a  slighting  remark  at 
the  expense  of  Cun'l  Chamb'lin.  The  wily  dip- 
lomat knew,  of  course,  that  his  black  correspond- 
ent could  no  more  read  than  he  could  write  and 
the  contents  would  have  to  be  read  to  her  by  Miss 
Anne.  He  was  a  success  as  a  matchmaker,  as 
witnessed  by  his  results. 

Sam  managed  to  relieve  the  tragedy  of  Mars' 
Chan's  impending  death  in  the  gallant  charge  of 
his  troops  by  first  explaining  his  own  escape  while 
riding  manfully  with  his  master.  His  horse  was 
shot  from  under  him  and  he  rolled  against  a  pro- 
tecting bank.  In  explanation  he  insisted,  "  Judy 
she  say  she  think  'twuz  Providence,  but  I  think 
'twuz  de  bank.  O'  co'se,  Providence  put  de  bank 
dyah,  but  how  come  Providence  nuver  saved  Mars' 
Chan?" 

Meh  Lady  is  a  fit  companion  for  Mars'  Chan. 
A  tale  of  such  patience  under  loss,  and  suffering, 
in  the  adversities  of  poverty  and  slow  destruction, 

II 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

can  scarce  be  duplicated  in  the  pages  of  American 
literature.  Page  has  presented  with  pathos  and 
an  understanding  sympathy  this  illustration  of 
what  occurred  in  scores  of  Southern  homes.  One 
who  can  read  and  not  be  profoundly  moved,  has 
atrophied  his  emotions  with  a  masterful  complete- 
ness. 

Uncle  Billy  tells  the  story.  Now  Uncle  Billy, 
like  other  privileged  members  of  his  race,  has 
grown  to  be  something  of  a  philosopher.  He 
remarks  of  Meh  Lady  and  her  probable  decision 
about  marriage:  "Her  cap'n  ain'  come  yet! 
when  dee  cap'n  come  dee  know  it,  an'  ef  dee  don't 
know  it  when  he  come,  dee  know  it  p'intedly  when 
he  go  Vay." 

The  dramatic  ending  bore  out  Uncle  Billy's  pre- 
diction. The  climax  is  skillfully  executed  by  Mr. 
Page.  Meh  Lady,  without  kin  or  friend,  at  last 
realizes  her  love  for  the  Federal  Captain;  they 
are  married  in  the  old,  dismantled  home.  At  the 
critical  moment  when  the  minister  inquired,  "  Who 
giveth  this  woman  to  be  married  to  this  man?  " 
no  one  was  there  to  respond  but  Uncle  Billy. 

12 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

Suddenly  realizing  his  duty  and  not  wishing  to 
undertake  such  responsibility  himself,  he  solemnly 
stepped  to  the  front,  announcing  in  his  most  portly 
fashion,  "  '  Gord.'  " 

Unc'  Edingburgh's  Drowndin'  has  several  ex- 
cellent reflections  of  the  old  plantation  life;  as 
the  author  remarks,  it  is  plantation  echo.  No  one 
could  deny  the  statement  of  Unc'  Edinburgh's 
that  "  Dees  Monsus  'ceivin'  critters,  women  is, 
jes  as  onreliable  as  de  hind  leg  of  a  mule;  a  man 
got  to  watch  'em  all  de  time."  There  are  hosts 
of  similar  amusing  reflections  throughout  the  story. 
They  reflect  the  easy  relation  and  the  liberty  that 
was  permitted  to  the  faithful  servitor. 

Ole'  Stracted  is  another  story  of  the  kindness 
of  the  very  poor  to  the  very  poor.  A  repetition 
of  both  acts  of  a  Good  Samaritan  and  the  bread 
cast  upon  the  waters,  which  these  folks  found  re- 
turned after  many  days  to  their  benefit;  the  only 
change  is  to  the  scene  of  a  desolate  and  deserted 
plantation  amid  the  wilds  of  a  neglected  Southern 
State.  The  plot  has  something  more  in  it  than 
is  usual  with  Mr.  Page's  short  stories. 

13 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

The  two  remaining  narratives  in  this  volume 
are  somewhat  different  from  the  general  trend  of 
the  others.  Polly  is  a  wholesome  study  in  South- 
ern femininity;  No  Haid  Pawn  is  merely  a  well 
told  reminiscence  of  a  boyhood  terror  —  both 
stories  being  composed  in  the  main  of  recollec- 
tions. 

Of  all  the  productions  of  Thomas  Nelson  Page 
none  can  supersede  In  Old  Virginia  for  a  truly 
historic  presentation  of  the  life  in  the  State  at  that 
period.  In  fact  the  author  himself  fully  appre- 
ciated his  position  in  the  import  of  these  several 
stories  when  he  stated  in  the  introduction  to  the 
book:  "  If  his  (Page's)  work  has  any  value,  it 
is  owing  to  his  having  fortune  enough  to  preserve 
in  some  sort  a  picture  of  a  civilization,  which, 
once  having  sweetened  the  life  of  the  South,  has 
since  then  well-nigh  perished  from  the  earth." 

There  is  no  trio  of  stories  breathing  the  atmos- 
phere of  the  war  time  privations  and  adventures 
which  exhibit  a  phase  of  the  writer's  ability  more 
lucidly  than  elsewhere  in  his  productions.  It  is 
of  the  "  Two  Little  Confederates,"  "  Burial  of 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

the  Guns,"  and  "Among  the  Camps "  that  I 
speak.  Throughout  the  group,  the  power  of  com- 
bining everyday,  inconsequent  incidents  into  in- 
tensely interesting,  unexpected  situations  betrays 
the  underlying  genius  of  expression  and  arrange- 
ment —  of  correlation. 

'Mr.  Page  has  ventured  with  success  into  the 
fidd  of  the  novel.  "  Red  Rock  "  was  awaited 
with  considerable  anxiety,  as  it  marked  the  tran- 
sition of  a  short  story  writer  of  undoubted  ability 
into  the  uncertain  realm  of  an  extensive  work  of 
fiction.  The  anxiety  was  happily  causeless.  The 
work  bears  the  stamp  of  firm  merit,  however  much 
the  charm  of  past  literary  characteristics  of  the 
author  seem  to  have  been  abated. 

Cardinal  Newman  ventured  to  define  a  gentle- 
man as  "  One  who  never  inflicts  pain."  Thomas 
Page  has  taken  some  such  ideal  as  the  inspiring 
theme  for  his  character  of  Dr.  Gary  in  Red  Rock, 
and  molded  therein  a  man  that  Cardinal  Newman 
knew  of,  but  consciously  failed  to  define  expressly, 
despite  his  array  of  rhetorical  accomplishments. 
Seldom  do  we  encounter  the  equal  of  this  old 

15 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

physician  in  the  pages  of  any  literature:  this 
type,  if  you  will,  of  the  country  doctor  of  the 
South,  or  any  region  for  that  matter,  where  the 
kindliness  of  spirit  and  the  charity  of  true  doctor- 
hood  is  manifested  in  countless  heroic  sacrifices. 
No  trouble  is  too  petty  for  the  advice  or  counsel 
of  this  sympathetic  cult,  no  disaster  is  too  awful 
for  their  ready  comprehension.  In  delineating 
such  a  character  as  Dr.  Gary  of  Birdwood,  Page 
has  erected  a  monument  over  the  graves  of  the 
countless  members  of  the  medical  profession  who 
have  made  existence  in  remote  rural  districts  a 
possibility,  rescued  comrades  on  battlefields  from 
the  agonies  of  torture  and  solaced  the  lives  of 
their  fellows  with  the  mercies  of  relief  by  their 
tireless  ministrations.  They  deserve  a  fitting  mark 
of  respect.  In  the  portrayal  of  this  Southern 
Doctor  they  have  indeed  received  a  striking  one. 
Mr.  Page  must  have  a  deep  affection  for  the 
noble  workers  in  this  profession.  The  most 
genial,  companionable,  and  thoughtful  of  all  his 
masculine  characters  have  been  those  who  devoted 
their  services  to  the  general  welfare  of  society. 

16 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

There  are  few  redeeming  features  in  Gordon 
Keith;  but  of  these  few  the  reply  of  Dr.  Balsam 
to  the  rich  woman  of  the  city,  who  patronizingly 
questioned  him  as  to  why  he  did  not  take  such 
skill  as  he  possessed  to  the  city,  is  one.  "  These 
few  sheep  in  the  wilderness  need  shepherding 
when  they  get  sick,"  replied  the  old  doctor  with 
courteous  dignity,  in  answer  to  this  sophisticated 
inquiry. 

Some  members  of  one  other  profession  he  treats 
with  fine  scorn.  In  a  single  case,  however,  he 
sketches  his  character  with  sincere  appreciation, 
but  this  single  case,  or  type  rather,  is  strongly 
offset  by  two  examples.  Dr.  Bartholomew  Capon 
of  John  Marvel  Assistant  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Rim- 
mon  of  Gordon  Keith  obtained  their  merited  de- 
serts and  their  share  of  his  virulent  sarcasm  on 
the  modern  church  and  pastors  who  shepherd  such 
golden  flocks.  Passage  after  passage  occurs  in 
ringing  denunciation  by  sarcasm  or  direct  repudi- 
ation of  these  followers  of  a  Christian  church, 
which,  to  his  mind,  wields  but  a  mockery  of  its 
legitimate  power.  These  men  deserve  his  scorn 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

as  society  churchmen;  they  merit  thoroughly  the 
thunders  of  his  wrath  that  are  meted  to  them. 
In  opposition  to  these  repulsive  figures  of  the 
church,  is  set  that  man  of  pure  ideals  and  Chris- 
tian spirit,  John  Marvel. 

While  the  novels  are  of  little  interest  as  South- 
ern productions,  they  have,  nevertheless,  a  bearing 
upon  the  development  of  this  particular  writer. 
In  Gordon  Keith,  the  plot  descends  into  melo- 
drama, the  majority  of  the  characters  being  mere 
inanimate  pawns  at  the  errant  will  of  the  author. 
Exception  to  this  sweeping  statement  must  be 
taken.  The  personality  of  General  Keith  should 
not  be  neglected  because  of  the  several  fine  quali- 
ties this  old  quixotic  Southerner  embodies;  a  trifle 
too  bizarre,  too  exotic;  but  of  all  the  characters 
he  must  be  conceded  to  be  preeminently  the  best  in 
the  book.  It  is  he  who  continued  to  be  the  mentor 
and  guide  of  the  hero,  his  son,  when  he  was  wont 
to  stray  from  that  ideal  of  manhood  dear  to  the 
old  man's  heart,  the  "  gentleman."  It  was  the 
father  who  directed  his  son  to  discharge  his  debt 
of  gratitude;  and  the  best  utterance  of  young 

18 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

Keith  in  the  volume  in  his  acknowledgment  of  "  a 
better  man  and  a  finer  gentleman  than  I  can  ever 
hope  to  be  —  my  father." 

The  book  would  be  sufficient  for  anyone  who 
had  not  written  a  Mars'  Chan  or  Meh  Lady,  but 
is  assuredly  below  that  high  plane  of  accomplish- 
ment. It  is  of  some  interest,  however,  in  connec- 
tion with  John  Marvel  Assistant.  The  charac- 
ters in  both  are  much  alike.  The  modes  of  ex- 
pression are  refined  to  a  pleasing  degree  in  this 
later  attempt;  the  facility,  the  grasp  and  finesse  of 
handling,  outdo  at  every  angle  the  rather  medi- 
ocre, melodramatic  production  of  his  earlier  years. 
Page  has  discarded  his  search  for  those  tawdry 
scenes  with  their  racy  naughtiness  that  he  indulged 
in  with  an  apparently  school-boy  zest.  To  take  its 
place  the  scenes  of  the  problem  novel  appear. 
There  is  more  skill  and  greater  assurance  in  the 
handling  of  this  later  attempt;  the  recital  of  the 
tale  goes  along  with  a  glib  ease,  a  confident  flow 
of  language,  that  was  at  times  painfully  lacking  in 
the  previous  ventures. 

Midway  between  these  two,  but  on  a  far  su- 
19 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

perior  plane  artistically,  is  Red  Rock.  In  the  first 
instance,  it  derives  its  interest  from  being  intrin- 
sically Southern  in  character  and  atmosphere.  In 
addition  to  its  historical  import,  the  book  enjoys  a 
group  of  men  and  women  whose  natures  have  been 
moulded  in  a  finer  region  than  that  of  the  tawdry 
characters  of  the  preceding  volume.  It  contains 
that  noble  figure  of  Dr.  Gary.  The  diminutive 
fighter,  General  Legaie,  and  his  Miss  Thomasia, 
whom  he  had  courted  for  forty  years,  lend  a  charm 
that  cannot  be  resisted.  It  is  not  merely  the  an- 
nals of  two  interesting  families,  the  Grays  and 
Carys;  it  is  a  narrative  of  Southern  life  by  means 
of  concrete  instances  in  which  a  deal  of  history, 
much  pathos  and  sorrow,  a  touch  of  sarcasm  and  a 
bit  of  wit,  make  up  a  valuable  homily  on  the 
Southern  manners  of  that  period. 

The  heroism  of  the  times  shown  by  the  women 
of  the  "  Old  County  "  makes  it  an  attractive  por- 
trayal of  Southern  womanhood.  There  is  plenty 
of  tragedy,  but  what  homes  in  the  South  were  not 
replete  with  similar  pitiful  scenes  during  those 
trying  twenty  years  or  more.  The  pathos  of  lives 

20 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

prematurely  spent,  and  the  suffering  caused  by 
legal  enactments  born  of  a  misbegotten  statesman- 
ship disclose  a  phase  of  history  that  a  part  of  the 
nation  is  wont  to  forget.  Subsequently,  "  On 
Newfound  River "  came  from  the  press.  The 
frank  avowal  of  the  writer  is  certainly  justified 
when  he  stated  that  the  effort  was  merely  a  story 
with  no  pretension  to  the  dignity  of  a  novel.  It 
is  a  picture  of  life  pure  and  simple,  dealing  with 
the  every-day  incidents  of  a  rural  existence  which 
has  long  since  faded  into  the  past. 

In  "  The  Old  South  "  and  "  The  Negro:  The 
Southerner's  Problem,"  the  field  of  historical  and 
social  essays  has  been  entered  with  a  gift  of  pro- 
phetic discernment.  The  former  deals  more 
largely  with  the  past;  the  latter  deals  without 
gloves  with  the  present  arid  the  vital  future.  Mr. 
Page  deserves  well  for  the  sanity  and  clarity  with 
which  he  states  the  cold,  merciless  facts  in  his  im- 
partial and  scholarly  manner. 

As  a  result  of  thorough  legal  equipment,  he 
possesses  a  faculty  trained  to  logical  treatment  of 
political  and  economic  conditions.  His  is  the  gift 

21 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

of  an  analytical  mind,  conversant  with  every  phase 
of  its  subject,  as  a  consequence  of  which  he  faith- 
fully portrays  the  conditions  of  Southern  life,  un- 
ravels its  problems  and  observes  its  pitfalls,  all 
with  an  astuteness  that  would  do  credit  to  many 
modern  statesmen.  He  does  not  hesitate  to  pro- 
nounce a  clean  cut  criticism  of  any  position,  if  that 
position  seems  to  him  to  contain  menace  to  Vir- 
ginia or  the  South.  Untouched  by  any  violent 
political  fantasies  or  the  desire  for  some  political 
preferment,  he  can  dictate  his  utterances  with  a 
novel  impartiality.  These  political  essays  are  for 
this  particular  reason  valuable  documents  on  many 
sound  doctrines  existent  formerly  and  to-day, 
which  but  for  his  clear-minded  elucidation  would 
continue  to  be  regarded  as  political  vagaries  only. 
The  constructive  principles  of  a  short  story  im- 
pose many  restrictions  on  a  vigorous  and  compre- 
hensive presentation  of  any  theme.  The  sum  total 
of  a  man's  art  must  consist  in  his  capacity  to  cope 
with  and  conquer  these  several  disabilities  imposed 
upon  him  by  the  rules  of  an  artistic  composition. 
The  efforts  of  Thomas  Nelson  Page  have  met  with 

22 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

gratifying  success  in  the  accomplishment  of  this 
feat.  In  fact,  he  has  executed  nothing  quite  so 
well  in  any  field  as  his  short  stories. 

To  procure  an  atmosphere  intimately  related  to 
the  context  of  the  narrative  at  the  very  outset  of 
the  tale,  was  a  mark  of  workmanship  that  Poe  con- 
sidered most  fundamental  in  the  constitution  of  a 
short  story.  No  Haid  Pawn  is  an  instance  of 
Page's  faculty  for  performing  this  requisite  of  the 
story  teller's  art.  With  an  atmosphere  akin  to 
that  of  The  Fall  of  The  House  of  Usher,  he  leads 
the  reader  insensibly  into  the  heart  of  the  tale 
until  the  complete  setting  is  minutely  exposed. 
That  a  host  of  Djinns  escaped  from  Hugo's  do- 
minions should  wing  their  way  by  would  occasion 
no  surprise  to  one  impressed  in  the  supernal  terrors 
of  this  Virginia  swamp.  The  effect  is  thorough; 
the  atmosphere  is  made  much  of  in  every  direction. 

The  space  to  develop  characters  is  of  necessity 
materially  restricted.  As  a  consequence,  the 
finesse  of  the  narrator's  art  must  be  exhibited  in 
presenting  the  several  figures  of  his  imagination 
in  a  forceful  manner  by  innuendo  and  suggestion 

23 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

in  judicial  apportionment.  This  task  Page  has  ac- 
complished in  an  able  manner.  The  characters  of 
Meh  Lady,  Unc'  Edingburgh',  of  Polly,  and  their 
companions,  are  finely  molded  specimens  of  that 
life  the  author  intended  to  depict.  The  number 
of  personages  are  very  limited,  but  those  select 
members  are  men  and  women  of  unquestioned 
strength,  tempered  by  an  exquisite  delicacy  of  feel- 
ing. The  value  of  these  characters,  in  the  cate- 
gory of  a  member  of  the  social  historians,  is  the 
fidelity  to  the  actual  people  of  that  period  so  de- 
lineated. If  they  are  but  the  entertaining  phan- 
toms of  the  author's  fancy,  they  are  artistic,  but 
absurdly  valueless  to  one  interested  in  the  historic 
and  social  phase  of  a  country's  life  which  the 
minute  monographs  and  official  records  fail  to  dis- 
close. If  they  are  men  and  women  with  an  in- 
substantial basis  in  fact  for  their  origin,  then  like- 
wise the  lack  of  actuality  invalidates  the  primary 
usefulness  of  these  characters.  What  they  pos- 
sess of  pathos,  humor,  and  companionability  will 
make  them  entertaining  visitors  on  any  book  shelf, 
but  scarce  permanent  members,  unless  evolved  with 

24 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

some  very  remarkable  species  of  literary  art. 
Page  has  seen  fit  to  portray  his  acquaintances  in 
the  garb  of  short  story  fiction  in  such  a  mgde  as  to 
leave  the  essential  historic  features  and  settings  in 
their  legitimate  place,  to  preserve  his  distinctive 
Virginianism,  and  yet  to  lose  none  of  his  literary 
finish.  There  has  been  no  ruthless  sacrifice  of 
artistic  beauty  in  his  stories,  no  rash  disregard  of 
pleasing  finish  because  of  this  devotion  to  the  truth. 
Both  the  distinction  of  creating  a  literary  produc- 
tion of  considerable  intrinsic  weight  and  erecting 
a  monument  of  a  social  regime  have  become  Page's 
through  the  merit  of  his  adherence  to  a  particu- 
lar, faithful  sketch  of  this  scheme  of  Virginia  life. 
From  an  identical  attitude  his  novels  should  be 
judged.  Both  Gordon  Keith  and  John  Marvel 
Assistant  are  but  absorbing  and  transient  works  of 
modern  life.  They  have  little  that  is  either  per- 
manently or  fundamentally  valuable.  In  what 
marked  contrast  to  these  volumes  are  those  mas- 
terpieces of  character  and  setting,  Red  Rock,  and 
in  some  measure,  On  New  Found  River,  notwith- 
standing the  superior  technical  finish,  the  dramatic 

25 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

power  of  either  one  or  the  other,  beyond  the  ease 
and  freedom  of  expression  which  one  novel  may 
possess  and  the  other  may  not,  Red  Rock  is  en- 
titled to  a  degree  of  respect  and  sincere  apprecia- 
tion of  worth  that  the  other  two  volumes  can  lay 
claim  to  in  no  manner  whatsoever.  This  book  is 
primarily  a  human  document.  It  is  a  document 
interwoven  with  the  histories  of  Southern  life  and 
character,  depicting  with  masterly  insight  the  vicis- 
situdes of  a  particular  period  in  a  manner  found 
nowhere  else.  Such  a  kindly  and  genial  inter- 
pretation of  this  stormy  and  misunderstood  time  is 
one  that  should  be  welcomed  with  open  arms  by 
all  who  profess  to  hold  the  ideal  of  truth  and  per- 
fect understanding.  This  is  a  volume  that  should 
find  a  treasured  home  with  the  scholar  and  the  in- 
vestigator. As  to  the  artistic  merit,  it  is  more 
masterly  in  interest,  it  is  more  generous  in  un- 
folding the  method  and  character  of  Page  himself 
than  any  other  single  production  from  the  pen  of 
this  gifted  man.  It  is  in  fact,  by  so  doing,  a 
revelation  of  Virginia  character,  Page  being  in- 
tensely Virginian. 

26 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

The  laurels  of  a  poet  will  not  be,  perhaps,  laid 
in  any  abundant  measure  at  the  door  of  Thomas 
Nelson  Page.  His  poetic  productions  are  tuneful 
melodies  intrinsically  valuable  for  that  spirit  and 
language  of  the  time  and  race  they  are  intended  to 
represent.  The  moods  and  sentiments  of  the 
black  race  find  ample  expression  in  these  half-epic 
relations  of  events  in  a  heroic  and  chivalric  period. 
The  tunes,  the  songs,  and  the  snatches  of  planta- 
tion melody  rank  favorably  with  the  versions  of 
negro  songs  collected  by  Joel  Chandler  Harris. 

The  matter  of  character  has  been  a  point  of 
excellence  in  all  of  Mr.  Page's  efforts.  Follow- 
ing the  long  line  of  literary  precedents,  from  the 
days  of  Helen  of  Troy  and  Iphigenia  of  Tauris  to 
the  present,  despite  the  cynical  treatment  of 
womankind  by  Balzac  and  Dumas,  or  the  cold 
materialism  of  Turgeneiff,  Page  has  seen  fit  to 
treat  the  women  of  his  fancy  and  experience  with 
profound  attention  and  a  gentle  delicacy.  Facts 
garnered  from  recollections  and  reminiscences 
were  sufficient  for  him  to  reproduce  other  Cor- 
delias and  Desdemonas  of  universal  attractive- 

27 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

ness.  Universal  attractiveness  because  of  those 
womanly  traits  of  lovableness  and  sympathy,  of 
joyful  caprice  and  engaging  perverseness,  that 
make  an  appeal  which  recognizes  no  denial  and 
admits  no  refusal  of  admittance  even  to  the  hearts 
of  cynical  critics. 

In  Social  Life  in  Old  Virginia  Before  the  War 
the  existence  of  Southern  women  and  the  scheme 
of  their  raising  is  admirably  related.  A  product 
of  such  a  system  of  existence  as  prevailed  in  those 
olden  days,  could  not  have  been  anything  other 
than  a  creature  of  such  inevitable  and  pronounced 
charm  as  were  these,  the  Southern  women,  of 
whom  he  so  truly  and  beautifully  writes  in  this  de- 
lightful volume.  M eh  Lady  and  Blair  Gary  were 
the  products  of  such  a  system.  As  to  its  success, 
need  more  be  said?  The  domestic  life  that  the 
women  of  the  ante-bellum  period  made  possible 
throws  into  sorry  contrast  those  multitudes  of 
matrimonial  establishments  of  the  present,  with 
their  tarnished  and  tawdry  settings,  their  mutilated 
domesticity  and  public  unhappiness.  The  sym- 
pathy and  charity  of  these  women  was  boundless. 

28 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

"  What  poor  person  was  there,  however  inaccessi- 
ble was  the  cabin,  that  was  sick  or  destitute  and 
knew  not  her  charity?  who  that  was  bereaved  that 
had  not  her  sympathy?  No  labor  was  too  severe 
for  their  undertaking,  if  another  person  was  in 
need  of  aid;  fragile  and  beautiful  as  were  the 
women  characters  of  Poe,  molded  after  his  own 
Virginia  Clem,  they  possessed  that  indomitable 
spirit  which  made  sacrifice  and  difficulty,  met  in  the 
discharge  of  what  they  conceived  to  be  duty,  a 
thing  of  small  concern  to  them.  It  was  not  neces- 
sary for  them  to  learn  the  arts  of  being  ladies ;  that 
art  was  their  inheritance ;  they  had  no  period  for 
coming  into  society,  for  they  were  always  an  inti- 
mate part  of  society  itself.  Page  disclaims  that  he 
was  "  responsible  for  their  creation,  but  only  for 
their  portraiture."  All  this  and  more,  Page 
has  done  for  literary  annals ;  a  service  to  the  South 
preserved  in  the  short  story,  in  the  novel  and  in 
the  essay. 

Dialect  has  been  the  chief  medium  of  expres- 
sion with  Cable,  Craddock,  Harris  and  Page. 
Cable  used  the  semi-French  patois  of  the  Louisi- 

29 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

ana  Creole,  Craddock  dealt  in  the  uncouth  speech 
of  the  Tennessee  mountaineer,  but  both  Harris 
and  Page  have  employed  the  dialect  of  the  planta- 
tion negro.  No  more  distinctive  form  of  speech 
could  be  found.  Equally  so,  there  scarce  could 
be  obtained  a  dialect  so  difficult  of  perfect  hand- 
ling and  accurate  translation  into  print.  That 
both  have  succeeded  admirably  is,  indeed,  a  tribute 
to  their  scholarship  and  linguistic  attainments.  It 
is  a  complicated  study  in  phonetics.  Thomas 
Nelson  Page  has  used  this  medium  with  consum- 
mate effect.  The  language  used  in  Old  Virginia 
is  perfection,  as  far  as  perfection  can  be  obtained, 
in  dialect  literature.  At  once  accurate  and  trust- 
worthy, the  speech  has  lost  little  of  its  original 
charm  by  definite  location  in  type.  The  music 
of  its  intonations,  its  swing  and  melody,  are  in 
the  main  retained  with  a  master's  aptitude.  The 
portrayal  of  Virginia  life  by  this  agency  is  done 
both  widely  and  well. 

Page  will  be  noted  among  classic  writers  for  his 
efforts  in  portraying  Virginia  life,  and  in  delineat- 
ing darky  character  of  the  slave  period.  At  one 

30 


THOMAS  NELSON  PAGE 

time  he  unfolds  life  in  the  fullness  of  prosperity, 
then  in  the  vicissitudes  of  harrowing  war,  and 
again  the  desolation  of  fireside  and  the  unuttera- 
ble humiliation  of  poverty  under  the  merciless 
domination  of  a  radical,  political  fanaticism. 

As  a  modern  critic  remarks  of  great  books  that 
they  are  "  not  born  in  the  intellect,  but  in  experi- 
ence," so  Mr.  Page  can  with  certainty  base  much 
of  his  work  upon  the  latter  part  of  this  definition. 
His  Virginianism  is  an  essentially  personal  thing. 
No  figure  in  this  group  of  social  historians  has 
placed  more  of  his  concrete  experiences  and  recol- 
lections in  his  productions  than  has  Thomas  Nel- 
son Page.  The  atmosphere  and  spirit  of  all  his 
writings  is  one  of  pleasant  reminiscence  and  de- 
lightful historic  recount. 

His  attitude  of  genial  good  nature  as  well 
towards  the  failings  of  his  people  as  to  the  un- 
warranted criticisms  of  them  has  gained  for  him 
a  host  of  admirers  who  at  first  were  attracted  by 
his  judicial  and  scholarly  approach  to  mooted  ques- 
tions and,  finally,  grew  to  appreciate  his  worth, 
realizing  the  breadth  of  his  perspective.  By  this 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

method,  his  has  been  the  privilege  of  conducing 
an  amicable  understanding  between  factions  that 
have  been  violently  estranged.  If  he  had  ac- 
complished only  what  he  has  done  in  this  field 
alone,  and  no  more,  he  would  have  performed 
an  inestimable  service  to  the  South.  As  it  is,  he 
has  both  executed  this  present  duty  and,  also,  laid 
the  foundation  for  a  debt  to  himself  from  all  who 
in  future  days  may  have  cause  to  seek  the  truth 
in  respect  of  that  state  of  society. 

As  essayist,  historian,  scholar,  romancer,  he  is 
versatile;  as  a  man  of  insight  into  the  several 
affairs  of  his  native  state,  he  is  stamped  as  a  man 
of  keen  judgment;  as  a  delineator  of  Virginia 
darky  character  in  slavery,  a  painter  of  Virginia 
life,  and  a  genius  in  his  own  field,  he  is  ordained 
to  stand  with  the  masters  of  authorship,  as  Cable 
is  occupied  with  Mississippi  life,  Craddock  with 
that  of  the  remote  mountain  regions  of  Tennessee, 
Harris  with  that  of  Georgia  in  the  realm  of  negro 
folk  lore,  Allen  with  Kentucky  life,  and  Page  with 
the  story  of  the  landed  gentry  of  "  Ole  Virginia." 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  CABLE 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  CABLE 

"  Fancies  and  passions  miser  eat  e 
By  man  in  things  dispassionate." 

— Swinburne. 

WHEN  Sainte-Beuve  announced  his 
method  of  interpretative  criticism 
embodying  an  investigation  of  the 
author's  life  and  productive  influ- 
ences as  well  as  the  book  itself,  he  gave  the 
first  decided  impetus  to  a  really  rational  criti- 
cism. Not  only  was  this  challenge  to  the  ac- 
cepted methods  a  flaunted  insult  to  classicism, 
and  to  the  rigid  conformist  to  ancient  models,  but, 
also,  it  was  a  world  extensive  declaration  for  sane 
critical  judgment,  for  an  equitable  interpretation 
of  the  literary  artist.  The  theory  demanded  fair 
dealing  between  the  judge  and  the  judged. 
George  W.  Cable  is  a  case  in  point.  Exclusive 
attention  to  his  concrete  works  would  be  as  unjust 
for  a  comprehensive  estimate  of  his  position  in 

35 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

Southern  Literature,  as  would  the  mere  study  of 
his  surroundings  and  personality.  Both  are  in- 
tegral parts  of  the  same  unit.  (i). 

The  several  generations  of  his  ancestors  with 
their  respective  opinions,  handed  down  to  Mr. 
Cable  a  curious  anomaly  of  ideas  destined  to  have 
a  radical  influence  upon  his  career.  The  blood 
of  the  Dutch,  English-Puritan,  and  German  stocks 
are  all  mingled  in  his  veins.  His  grandfather 
was  a  German,  George  Cable,  born  in  Virginia  of 
the  old  family  of  Cables;  he  later  removed  to 
Pennsylvania  where,  together  with  his  wife,  Mar- 
garet Stott  Cable,  who  was  of  Dutch  descent,  they 
agreed  to  free  their  negroes,  both  having  decided 
prejudice  against  holding  slaves.  Subsequently, 
the  family  moved  to  Indiana,  where  the  father  of 
the  novelist  married  a  woman  of  extraordinary 
character,  Rebecca  Boardman;  she  was  of  English- 
Puritan  ancestry  from  the  New  England  States. 

As  a  result  of  the  financial  crisis  of  1837,  the 
father  of  the  novelist  failed  in  business  three  years 
after  his  marriage;  but  he  was  persuaded  by  his 
wife  to  resume  his  efforts  for  a  livelihood  in  New 

36 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  CABLE 

Orleans  —  the  thriving  port  just  coming  into 
prominence.  Here,  as  a  salesman  of  Western  pro- 
duce to  river  steamers,  he  was  decidedly  successful. 
Six  children  were  born,  two  of  whom  died  in  child- 
hood. George  Washington  Cable  was  born  Octo- 
ber twelfth,  1844,  thus  attaining  the  age  of  four- 
teen before  the  death  of  his  father,  which  left  the 
family  in  cramped  circumstances.  It,  therefore, 
became  necessary  for  the  future  author  to  start 
to  work  in  the  commission  firm  of  Violet  & 
Black.  This  was  the  beginning  of  his  commer- 
cial career. 

In  1863  young  Cable  enlisted  in  the  Fourth 
Mississippi  Cavalry  of  the  Confederate  Army,  in 
General  Wirt  Adam's  Brigade.  So  very  youthful 
was  the  boy's  appearance  at  the  age  of  nineteen 
that  frequently  he  provoked  the  enlivening  ques- 
tion from  the  Federal  soldiers,  "  Are  you  sending 
babies  to  fight  us?  "  The  youngster  made  an  ex- 
cellent soldier,  serving  with  daring,  courage,  and 
promptness,  proving  himself  a  strict  disciplinarian; 
he  spent  his  spare  hours  around  the  camp  fire  in 
the  study  of  the  Bible,  Latin,  and  Mathematics. 

37 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

He  was  finally  dangerously  wounded  in  the  armpit 
and  forced  to  retire  from  the  service. 

Upon  the  scattering  of  the  forces  after  the  sur- 
render, young  Cable  procured  a  position  as  errand 
boy,  while  he  studied  civil  engineering.  When  he 
finally  became  sufficiently  competent,  he  joined  a 
surveying  party  that  was  to  go  along  the  Acha- 
falaya  River  in  the  Teche  country.  Here  he  con- 
tracted the  u  breakbone  fever  "  or  malaria,  which 
prevented  him  from  doing  active  work  for  two 
years,  but  he  was  not  entirely  idle  during  this  time, 
as  he  applied  himself  to  the  natural  history  and 
the  human  history  of  that  section  since  the  time 
of  the  first  settlers. 

He  soon  commenced  to  contribute  humorous 
and  critical  selections  intermingled  with  some  verse 
to  the  New  Orleans  Picayune  under  the  pen  name 
of  "  Drop  Shot."  As  he  was  rather  successful 
with  these  sketches,  he  was  permanently  attached 
to  the  staff.  For  the  first  time  his  radical  views 
came  into  prominence.  He  resigned  from  the 
Picayune  because  of  an  assignment  to  write  up 
the  dramatic  criticism  of  a  Sunday  theater.  At 

38 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  CABLE 

that  time  he  objected  to  Sabbath  breaking  of  any 
sort,  even  having  no  food  cooked  on  that  day  in 
his  house.  Elsewhere  his  religious  life  and 
scruples  were  carried  to  other  extremes. 

Upon  his  resignation  from  the  Picayune  he  be- 
came the  bookkeeper  of  a  cotton  dealer.  He, 
nevertheless,  continued  writing,  contributing  to 
the  Century  Magazine.  After  a  short  period, 
on  the  death  of  his  employer,  he  gave  up  his 
position  and  devoted  himself  to  literature  ex- 
clusively. 

The  first  story,  "  Sieur  George,"  was  a  little 
masterpiece  in  its  way.  A  number  of  equally  fine- 
grained sketches  followed  in  close  order.  After 
the  recovery  from  his  illness,  "  The  Grandis- 
simes  "  appeared  in  serial  form,  thus  beginning 
his  long  line  of  stories,  novels  and  essays  dealing 
with  his  view  of  the  varied  phases  of  Southern 
life.  He  has  continued  to  contribute  in  this  same 
vein  with  considerable  honor  and  fame,  yet  those 
whom  he  delineates  and  those  he  attempts  to  bring 
forward  from  the  shadows  of  a  departed  regime 
have  protested  in  an  unmistakable  manner  against 

39 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

the  method  of  rejuvenation  and  questioned  the  ac- 
curacy of  his  interpretation. 

As  Sainte-Beuve  declared  that  it  was  within 
the  province  of  a  critique  to  investigate  and  weigh 
the  influences  of  an  author's  life  and  times,  so  it 
is  within  the  province  of  this  sketch  to  find  wherein 
George  W.  Cable,  the  artist,  failed  as  George  W. 
Cable,  the  social  philosopher.  It  resolves  itself 
into  the  study  of  his  life  in  its  influence  upon  the 
product  of  his  pen — the  genius  of  his  creative 
powers. 

At  the  age  of  an  impressionable  youngster 
equipped  with  a  receptive  mind,  he  entered  the 
camps  of  the  Confederate  Army  and  took  an  ac- 
tive share  in  the  violent  vicissitudes  of  the  shift- 
ing conflict.  Thus  it  is  that  the  scenes  of  his  early 
boyhood  are  vividly  reflected  in  "  The  Cavalier." 
The  young  hero  who  reveals  his  fears  and  tri- 
umphs with  whole-souled  frankness  is  none  other 
than  the  author  himself  speaking.  The  religious 
convictions  of  the  young  man  and  his  almost  ridic- 
ulous qualms  of  conscience  are  those  of  a  real 
personage;  there  is  the  pervasive  feeling  that  the 

40 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  CABLE 

author  is  playing  the  role  of  autobiographer,  yet 
desires  to  disguise  the  fact  by  some  impalpable 
film  of  fiction.  As  a  source  of  knowledge  of  the 
author's  personality,  it  is  valuable,  nevertheless 
the  continuation  of  the  theme  as  the  main  topic 
of  an  extended  novel  is  not  only  tedious  and 
trivial,  but  degenerates  into  meaningless  frothings. 
Great  sermons  have  been  preached  by  the  masterly 
revelations  of  soul  in  the  unique  creations  of  litera- 
ture; here  there  can  be  no  supreme  art  where  the 
actor  in  the  scenes  is  the  evident  mouthpiece  of 
the  writer's  moralizing.  Mr.  Cable's  essential 
fault  is  his  obtrusion  of  himself  into  the  limelight 
of  the  action.  It  is  a  personal  sermon. 

The  minor  characters  of  this  volume  have  pleas- 
ing details;  that  is  the  most  that  can  be  said  for 
them.  The  heroine,  Charlotte  Olivier,  is  a  rather 
whimsical  creation  endowed  by  the  genius  of  some 
superhuman  intelligence,  which  buffets  the  fates 
and  plays  the  spy  with  remarkable  skill.  We  can 
but  fancy  she  is  not  the  product  of  imagination 
purely,  rather  the  crystallization  of  an  ideal  with 
all  the  perfections  of  such  a  state  and  the  limits 

41 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

of  its  practical  application.  Even  the  counter  play 
of  the  hero  takes  on  something  of  this  mock-heroic 
tinge-puppets  for  the  proof  of  a  religious  fantasy. 

He  is  supreme  in  the  description  of  Louisiana  as 
the  natural  paradise.  Excellent  artistic  feeling 
united  with  scientific  observation  as  the  result  of 
the  long  days  spent  in  camp  and  in  roaming  as  a 
surveyor  through  the  swamps  and  bayous  of  the 
Atchafalaya  River  was  a  fitting  prerequisite  for 
the  endowment  of  the  adroit  artist  that  George 
W.  Cable  is.  With  matchless  grace  he  touches 
the  lute  strings  of  Nature's  lyre  and  revels  in  a 
harmony  of  color  and  sound. 

The  charming  idyl  of  "  Bonaventure  "  abounds 
with  the  mystic  beauties  of  the  swamp.  The  in- 
tricate fashioning  of  the  silvery  curtains  of  Span- 
ish moss,  gently  swayed  by  the  soft  eddying  tide 
of  a  hidden  bayou  becomes  as  vivid  to  the  imagina- 
tion as  the  sweeping  emerald  prairies  under  the 
dome  of  liquid  topaz,  sapphire,  and  opal  rimmed 
at  the  horizon,  where  the  sun  has  lately  sunk,  by  a 
medley  of  lemon  and  orange  shafts  of  light  in 
the  fading  tints  of  rose  and  salmon.  The  superb 

42 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  CABLE 

grace  of  his  descriptions  mated  with  the  vast  scien- 
tific knowledge  create  a  remarkably  life-like  result. 
Mr.  Cable  is  successful  in  this  domain.  No 
one  who  was  not  thoroughly  conversant  with  every 
mood  and  whim  of  this  beautiful  wilderness  on 
gulf  and  river  could  portray  quite  so  effectively 
the  varied  aspects  of  the  semi-tropical  fauna  and 
the  several  phenomena  of  nature.  On  the  one 
hand  to  respond  to  the  caress  of  utter  peace  in  the 
quiet  beauty  of  a  secluded  wilderness ;  on  the  other, 
to  rise  in  unison  with  the  unbridled  fury  of  a 
hurricane,  is  undoubtedly  masterful.  From  the 
wastes  of  an  unexplored  forest  to  the  rare  gardens 
in  the  French  quarter  of  New  Orleans,  there  is 
the  ever  present  sense  of  Mr.  Cable's  mastery  of 
his  setting.  Through  the  magic  of  his  art  gor- 
geous pictures  of  retired  courts  and  high  walled 
gardens  light  the  imagination  with  every  tint  and 
shade  of  the  brilliant  original.  His  is  the  ex- 
traordinary faculty  of  appreciating  fully  the  subtle 
charms  of  this  exotic  color  and  of  holding  up  se- 
lected bits  of  the  bizarre  old  scenes  for  the  enjoy- 
ment of  those  of  to-day  and  the  instruction  of 

43 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

those  of  to-morrow.  "  Bonaventure "  and  the 
"  Solitary,"  in  "  Strong  Hearts,"  together  with 
'  The  Grandissimes,"  are  instances  of  his  scenes 
of  bayou,  river,  and  forest  life;  "  Dr.  Sevier," 
"  Posson  Jone  "  and  "  Old  Creole  Days  "  are  de- 
voted rather  more  exclusively  to  the  fast  depart- 
ing beauties  of  the  French  quarter  in  New  Orleans. 
For  perpetuating  such  scenes  we  owe  him  a  debt 
of  gratitude. 

The  habits  of  George  W.  Cable  in  life  and  in 
work  are  indicative  of  a  methodical  mind.  As 
the  probable  result  of  his  commercial  experiences, 
his  Books  and  notes  are  kept  in  scrupulous  order. 
So  it  is  a  salient  characteristic  of  his  to  be  scien- 
tifically accurate;  he  is  primarily  the  lover  of  ab- 
stract truth,  of  keen  precision,  of  logical  action. 
That  is  his  difficulty  with  character  delineation. 
He  wants  the  men  and  women  he  imagines  to  be 
the  logical  result  of  their  mode  of  life,  their  cus- 
toms, their  morals,  forgetting  in  his  desire  for 
logical  precision  the  illogical  sequence  of  actual 
events.  If  Mr.  Cable  could  forget  the  message 
he  is  trying  to  teach,  his  personal  views  on  the 

44 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  CABLE 

proper  standard  of  morality  and  social  govern- 
ment, and  let  the  characters  of  his  books  be  men 
and  women  as  real  as  his  scenes,  we  could  hail 
him  as  a  master  poet  whose  artistic  sense  was 
alive  to  color  and  character  alike.  His  search 
for  an  accurate  justification  of  his  theory  prevents 
the  actual  truth.  Without  truth  the  artist's  best 
efforts  are  spent  in  a  misconceived  struggle  to  give 
birth  to  an  immortal  production. 

As  Gibbon  speaks  of  the  models  of  the  Ancients 
"  wherein  truth  appears  embellished  with  all  the 
graces  of  the  imagination,"  it  might  be  said  t>f 
masterly  fiction  that  an  essential  prerequisite  is 
that  the  imagination  be  embellished  with  all  the 
graces  of  truth. 

George  W.  Cable  is  similar  in  some  measure  to 
those  Russian  authors  of  the  stamp  of  Tolstoi, 
Gorky  and  Turgenieff,  who  attend  with  assiduous 
skill  to  the  details  of  their  setting,  but  weld  a  per- 
verted scheme  of  human  action  and  a  distorted 
view  of  human  life  into  the  whole.  Like  these 
Russians,  Mr.  Cable  views  his  characters,  his 
scheme  of  thought,  through  the  haze  of  personal 

45 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

prejudice  and  opinion;  his  motive,  like  theirs,  is  to 
show  the  repulsive  results  of  a  social  error  at  all 
costs  and  mend  the  vehicle  of  his  expression  as 
best  he  may.  That  is  neither  good  art  nor  truth. 

Whenever  the  literary  artist  steps  into  the  realm 
of  the  social  philosopher,  he  has  entered  upon  a 
tortuous  course  where  a  legion  of  literary  reputa- 
tions have  been  wrecked.  He  can  tell  of  life  as 
he  sees  it,  but  to  tell  of  life  as  he  would  have  it, 
robs  the  tale  of  its  vital  essence.  He  can  be  a 
stenographer,  but  not  the  stenographer  and  him 
who  dictates  at  the  same  time. 

Throughout  Mr.  Cable  objects  strenuously  to 
the  evils  of  quadroon  and  slave;  to  miscegenation; 
to  those  illicit  relations  between  the  white  race  and 
the  race  tinctured  with  a  greater  or  less  amount  of 
a  darker  pigment.  He  is  a  radical  politically. 
Religion  is  a  thing  of  paramount  importance.  He 
finds  the  lax  morals  and  liberal  code  of  a  partic- 
ular section  of  Creoles  an  abomination  and  crying 
shame  which  he  immediately  saddles  upon  the 
whole  community. 

Rancor  and  bitterness  are  the  monopolizing  fea- 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  CABLE 

tures  of  his  thought,  which  permeate  his  methods 
and  prevent  the  rightful  sway  of  his  artistic  sense. 
Satire  and  ridicule  of  shame  are  the  keen  weapons 
of  his  expression,  but  fall  short  of  their  object  and 
strip  the  writer  of  his  power.  As  one  obsessed  he 
writes  with  a  burning  finger  what  he  seems  to  think 
is  the  hidden  script.  It  is  no  secret.  The  objec- 
tions to  such  a  system  are  recognized;  the  disas- 
trous results  of  such  an  incident  to  a  social  order 
are  heartily  condemned  by  rational  opinion. 
There  is  no  need  for  the  flaunting  of  this  error; 
his  own  literary  activity  has  been  materially  de- 
based and  estranged  from  the  truth  as  he  was  car- 
ried by  his  momentous  eagerness  to  expose  the  sin. 
The  thoughts  and  actions  of  posterity  will  not  be 
the  gainer  a  whit  by  this  passion  to  satirize  the 
moral  nakedness  of  a  fatal  mistake  perpetrated  by 
a  thoughtless  minority;  Creole  life  in  general  has 
been  made  to  stand  as  the  synonym  for  the  un- 
pardonable sins  of  race  because  of  a  defect  in  a 
small  division  of  the  community  and  the  ineffec- 
tiveness of  the  law  there.  His  perspective  has 
been  violently  displaced. 

47 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

The  winning  characteristics  of  the  Creole  and 
the  charming  mode  of  his  life  are  in  the  main 
true.  The  truth,  however,  to  proportion  is,  in 
some  places  slightly,  in  others  widely,  divergent 
from  the  contour  of  the  original,  for  the  picture 
he  draws  presents  the  queer  anomaly  of  a  master 
delineator,  with  a  passion  for  accuracy,  betrayed 
by  the  temptation  to  insert  his  own  interpretation, 
not  to  present  faithfully  the  features  of  the  sub- 
ject. It  is  this  defect  that  robs  the  sketches  of 
their  claims  to  absolute  historical  trustworthiness. 
Observable  exaggeration  insidiously  poisons  thev 
mind  of  the  reader  with  suspicions  as  to  the  fidelity 
of  the  artist's  efforts  in  exhibiting  faithfully  the 
picture  at  once  so  attractive  and  full  of  tropical 
color. 

In  the  "  Silent  South "  Mr.  Cable  effectively 
demonstrates  his  inability  to  argue  his  points  con- 
sistently. At  one  place  he  goes  at  great  length  to 
demand  certain  privileges  for  the  blacks  which 
would  result  in  certain  social  equality,  and  in  a 
paper  immediately  following  this  particular  one, 
denies  that  such  was  the  purpose  of  the  demand, 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  ,CABLE 

although  such  proposal  proved  to  have  only  one 
meaning.  The  inconsistency  remains  throughout. 
On  political  and  social  questions  his  religious  and 
moral  inclinations  carry  him  into  uncertain,  un- 
familiar waters.  The  firm  character  and  sincerity 
of  his  utterances  command,  however,  sympathetic 
respect.  He  has  manifested  throughout  his  whole 
life  this  willingness  to  stand  by  his  opinions  and 
back  them  by  every  resource  at  his  command,  and 
this  character  was  early  seen  by  his  religious  studies 
in  the  camps  and  in  his  resignation  from  the  Pica- 
yune. 

The  resentment  of  his  neighbors  made  these 
fearless  declarations  of  his  views  the  subject  of 
estrangement.  Life  in  New  Orleans  became  un- 
bearable to  one  who  had  so  flagrantly  offended  his 
friends  among  the  Creoles  and  even  in  the  Amer- 
ican quarter.  Consequently,  he  moved  his  home 
to  Northampton,  Massachusetts,  where  he  now 
resides. 

The  author  evidently  had  this  charming  spot  in 
mind  when  he  constructed  the  delightful  tale, 
"  Bylow  Hill."  The  striking  sweetness  of  the 

49 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

sketch,  dominated  as  it  is  by  the  attempt  to  un- 
ravel a  moral  tangle,  reveals  the  true  worth  and 
ability  of  the  man  when  he  does  not  attempt  to  in- 
ject at  every  angle  some  favorite  reform  or  sub- 
ject of  sarcastic  ridicule.  For  it  is  his  aptitude 
with  sarcastic  weapons  and  telling  epigram  that 
has  made  his  stories  of  Creole  life  and  his  com- 
ments thereon  teem  with  stinging  remarks.  The 
English-Puritan  blood  constantly  cries  out  against 
the  moral  laxity  of  a  section  of  the  community  — 
the  morals  of  this  gay,  free,  pleasure  loving  peo- 
ple of  a  light  hearted  race;  his  association  with 
Gallic  life  has  put  an  edge  upon  his  verbal  weapons 
which  he  knows  how  to  handle  with  uncommon 
power.  Yet  sarcasm  and  epigram  do  not  beget 
sympathetic  interpretation  or  truth.  We  see  in 
"  Dr.  Sevier  "  a  man  strikingly  like  the  writer. 
He  will  not  let  politics  alone;  he  will  be  sarcastic 
and  quixotic,  and  these,  true  to  life  as  they  may 
be,  are  potent  factors  in  rendering  him  unable  to 
do  his  full  share  of  good.  He  lets  his  dangerous 
notions  of  reform  destroy  his  efficiency  to  make  re- 
form a  more  tangible  thing;  his  influence  deli- 

50 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  CABLE 

quesces  through  some  mysterious  alchemy 
wherein  the  destructive  powers  of  conflicting  ele- 
ments have  full  sway. 

As  has  been  mentioned,  a  number  of  the  men  in 
Mr.  Cable's  books  express  some  phase  of  his  life, 
some  element  of  his  thought,  or  a  particular  inci- 
dent in  his  career.  In  this  same  volume  of  "  Dr. 
Sevier  "  the  character  of  John  Richling,  weak  and 
vacillating,  whom  he  manages  to  kill  so  entertain- 
ingly after  a  tedious  existence,  is  none  other  than 
a  reflection  of  George  W.  Cable's  youthful  exper- 
ience in  the  commercial  world.  The  description 
of  the  scenes  in  the  business  district  has  every  at- 
tribute of  actual  observation.  The  duties  of  ac- 
countant and  clerk,  the  search  for  work  and  the 
bitter  struggle  for  bread,  are  the  impressions  of 
personal  experience. 

The  scenes  in  "  Bonaventure  "  are  only  those 
his  study  of  natural  history  and  the  days  spent  as 
a  surveyor  in  the  swamps  and  plantation  fields 
could  make  possible;  the  very  character  of  "  Bona- 
venture "  seems  to  be  an  expression  of  his  ideal 
man  filled  with  noble  simplicity  acting  in  his  pas- 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

sion  for  knowledge  the  pioneer  of  civilization 
among  the  Acadians.  It  is,  perhaps,  his  supreme 
creation.  The  texture  of  the  simple  Bonaventure 
is  exceedingly  fine  —  a  man  of  peace  and  thorough 
lovableness  upon  whose  slight  shoulders  devolve 
moral  problems  of  no  mean  order.  Through  the 
frank  nobility  of  his  soul  he  met  and  conquered 
each  one  manfully. 

The  scene  is  almost  a  sequel  to  u  Evangeline." 
The  Acadians  have  settled  in  their  new  home  and 
this  is  a  study  of  their  fate  and  how  they  met  it. 

Aurora  and  Honore,  together  with  Raoul  and 
Narcisse,  are  happy  creations.  The  latter  espe- 
cially is  a  valuable  picture,  or  may  we  say  a  re- 
production, of  the  essentials  of  Creole  character 
that  make  so  attractive  this  Gallic  offspring  in  the 
new  land.  None  of  the  charming  vivacity  and 
keen  wit  of  the  original  seems  to  have  been  lost  in 
transplanting  the  race  from  the  shores  of  France. 
The  gay,  inconsequent  beauties  and  the  irresponsi- 
ble, pleasure  seeking  men  appear  rare  plants  in 
the  cold  system  of  democratic  government. 

In  "Old  Creole  Days"  and  in  "Strong 
52 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  CABLE 

Hearts  "  there  is  much  of  fine  artistic  worth.  No 
more  beautiful  sketches  of  New  Orleans  life  in 
the  early  part  of  the  last  century  have  come  from 
the  pen  of  this  gifted  writer.  The  moral  pro- 
tests and  problems  still  abound,  but  the  essence 
of  the  story  is  surpassingly  fine.  The  scenes  be- 
come so  vivid  that  the  reader  seems  to  have  un- 
consciously drifted  into  the  actual  portrait  where 
the  atmosphere  is  suffused  with  the  scents  of 
orange  blossom  and  oleander.  We  walk  down 
the  vistas  of  semi-tropical  luxuriousness  with  a 
people  of  departed  days.  "  Posson  Jone  "  and 
"  Pere  Rahael  "  are  portrayals  of  the  early  type 
of  pioneer  and  citizen  in  New  Orleans;  the  de- 
scription of  life  in  the  provincial  community  are 
adroitly  done  by  skillful  word-painting  and  genuine 
artistic  handling. 

Throughout  it  all  the  prevailing  genius  of  his 
Creole  stories  is  that  Gallic  spirit  which  has  en- 
dowed the  French  language  with  its  distinctive 
charm — "  esprit."  That  indefinable  soul  of  bril- 
liant expression  which  is  the  subtle  embodiment  of 
a  vivacious  people's  thought;  the  power  to  infer, 

53 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

the  ability  to  grasp  the  extreme  niceties  of  an 
allusion  and  to  use  the  hint  for  its  utmost  value. 
Mr.  Cable's  long  association  with  these  peoples 
has  imbued  his  writings  with  the  most  attractive 
flavor  of  their  own  productions. 

After  all,  we  might  well  ask,  what  indeed  is  the 
claim  that  George  Washington  Cable  will  have 
to  live  as  an  integral  part  of  Southern  Literature? 
With  all  his  various  errors,  he  will  certainly  take 
his  place  among  those  of  that  Southern  School  of 
authors  represented  by  Page,  Craddock,  Harris, 
and  Allen;  however  much  he  has  missed  the  true 
spirit  of  the  Southland,  there  is  much  in  him  of 
valuable  character.  Every  man  in  this  school 
has  had  a  mission  of  reconstruction;  it  has  been 
the  function  of  each  to  infuse  with  the  fire  of  his 
genius  some  particular  phase  of  Southern  life  and 
manners  that  it  might  be  perpetuated  as  a  vivid 
bit  of  reality.  In  this  aspect  they  are  important 
as  interpreters,  recorders,  historians.  Their  mis- 
sion is  indeed  that  of  the  reconstructionists,  of 
rebuilders,  of  those  who  reproduce  what  they  have 
known  intimately  or  lived  personally,  so  that  pos- 

54 


GEORGE  WASHINGTON  CABLE 

terity  may  be  accurately  informed  as  to  the  course 
of  events  in  a  past  era,  as  to  the  illusive  manners 
of  a  departed  regime.  Their  work  is  a  stage 
wherein  their  words  serve  both  as  a  prompt-book 
and  the  actual  lines  for  the  actors  in  a  neglected 
realm. 

Thus  Mr.  Cable,  like  Page,  Craddock,  and 
Harris,  has  used  dialect  most  effectively.  He  has 
uncovered  and  used  without  stint  his  copious  sup- 
ply of  scientific  material  for  the  descriptions  of  his 
scenes;  he  has  reproduced  characters  who  speak 
as  those  for  whom  they  stand  must  have  spoken, 
evolved  from  actual  observation  and  patient  his- 
torical research.  We  can  largely  overlook  his 
failure  to  give  the  life  and  spirit  of  the  Creole 
with  strict  fidelity,  for  he  has  given  us  much  that 
is  innately  beautiful  and  really  superior.  The  re- 
ward is  a  generous  share  of  honor. 

As  a  man  of  sincere  religious  power,  which 
worked  in  many  cases  a  detriment  to  his  art  and 
in  others  an  inspiration,  as  an  author  of  versa- 
tility, as  an  observer  of  uncommon  analytical 
ability,  we  are  entitled  to  judge  him  worthy  of 

55 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

thoughtful  consideration.  This  is  his  claim  to 
keep  his  fame  perpetually  bright.  He  has  held 
up  the  mirror  in  order  to  reflect  a  little  known 
life,  presented  the  reflection  skillfully,  that  the 
world  might  hereafter  read  and  know.  For  this 
his  works  should  continue  a  vital  element  in  South- 
ern Literature. 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

(Mary  Noailes  Murfree) 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

(Mary  Noailes  Murfree) 

"  To  me  the  meanest  flower  that  blows  can  give 
Thoughts  that  do  often  lie  too  deep  for  tears." 

— Wordsworth. 

IN  the  vast  domain  of  the  Blue  Ridge  and 
Alleghany  Mountains  a  remarkable  clan  of 
men   has   settled.     The    territory    included 
within  the  mountainous  sections  of  Virginia, 
the     Carolinas,     Tennessee,     and    Georgia,     ex- 
tending from  the  region  of  the  Ragged  Moun- 
tains, immortalized  by  Poe,  to  the  low  lying  foot- 
hills of  Georgia,   familiar  in  the  pages  of  Joel 
Chandler  Harris,  is  one  of  vivid  and  impressive 
grandeur.     Seldom  have  the  rugged  lands  of  the 
New  World  been  so  aptly  adapted  to  the  mainte- 
nance   of   the    original   hardihood    in    the    early 
pioneers. 

The  venturesome  spirits  of  the  first  colonists 
59 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

at  Jamestown  scattered  rapidly  as  the  reinforce- 
ments from  England  arrived,  steadily  pushing 
their  hardy  front  towards  the  promising  West. 
Legions  of  these  men  became  enamoured  of  the 
hills,  and  attached  themselves  permanently  to  the 
serried  slopes  of  this  primeval  tract.  Not  alone, 
however,  were  the  mountainous  districts  of  the 
eastern  colonies  populated  with  the  able  and  sturdy 
spirits  of  the  daring  settlers  who  came  for  a  peace- 
ful home,  but  numbers  of  the  discontents,  male- 
factors, and  outcasts  of  some  political  or  social 
revolution  in  Europe  were  shipped  to  the  virgin 
fastnesses  of  the  new  dependencies  to  work  out 
their  schemes  in  the  trackless  wilderness.  Hosts 
of  these  restless  characters  found  no  more  content 
here  than  at  home.  The  increasing  civilization 
in  the  growing  colonial  centers  necessitated  their 
continual  withdrawal  to  the  secluded,  rougher  lo- 
calities where  their  bold  and  adventurous  natures 
found  ample  occupation  in  the  struggle  for  a 
meager  existence.  The  exodus  of  these  types 
from  the  realm  of  continental  civilization  into  the 
deserted  regions  of  the  Southern  Mountains 

60 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

marked  the  genesis  of  one  of  the  most  bizarre 
divisions  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race. 

Nowhere  have  more  notable  expositions  been 
presented  of  the  character  and  scenes  in  any  par- 
ticular locality,  than  those  in  the  volumes  of 
Charles  Egbert  Craddock  dealing  with  the  Ten- 
nessee Mountain  folk.  The  inhabitants  of  the 
Great  Smoky  Mountains  entered  their  forest 
homes  with  ideas  and  equipment  modern  a  cen- 
tury ago.  To-day,  they  maintain  virtually  the 
same  aspect  and  the  identical  implements  of  their 
forefathers  barely  modified  by  the  marvels  of  out- 
side invention.  It  is  scant  wonder  that  the  de- 
lineation of  such  characters  in  the  accurate  and 
precise  manner  of  Craddock  proved  of  intense 
literary  interest. 

Miss  Murfree  attacked  her  intricate  problem 
with  a  scientific  spirit.  The  mountaineer's  nature 
was  an  unexplored  tract  in  the  studies  of  social 
psychology.  She  applied  a  keen  intelligence  and 
an  active  imagination  to  the  analysis  of  this  ret- 
icent, uncouth  and  backward  division  of  society 
until  she  faithfully  unravelled  the  subtle  mass 

61 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

of  customs,  unwritten  laws,  childish  prejudices, 
and  superstitions.  In  her  record  of  this  effort 
she  has  embodied  a  faithful  reproduction  of  the 
actual  conditions  with  little  perversion  for  artistic 
purposes.  At  first  glance  such  a  course  would 
presuppose  a  treatise  of  interest  to  the  student  of 
social  conditions  utterly  antagonistic  to  any  pre- 
tence to  literary  success.  This  is  not  the  case. 
To  portray  the  individuality  of  this  primitive  com- 
munity is  to  unfold  a  novel  type  of  Anglo-Saxon, 
at  once  fundamentally  the  exponent  of  personal 
liberty  and  ready  justice,  together  with  unde- 
veloped capacities  for  extraordinary  progress, 
making  the  work  a  veritable  revelation. 

The  study  of  these  mountaineers  of  pure  Eng- 
lish ideals  is  an  uncanny  thing.  We  see  ourselves 
more  than  a  century  ago,  arrested  in  the  develop- 
ment by  some  supernatural  neglect,  put  under  the 
microscope,  and  every  point  of  our  national  traits 
and  organism  illumined  fully  in  the  light  of  mod- 
ern information.  Miss  Murfree  spent  a  part  of 
her  life  amongst  these  people,  and,  in  so  doing, 
she  served  an  apprenticeship  in  a  stupendous 

62 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

human  laboratory.  Her  books  are  laboratory 
records  of  a  distinctive  investigation  in  generic 
psychology  which  gives  her  the  credit  of  a  gen- 
uine contribution  to  the  science  of  the  social  or- 
ganization as  well  as  to  the  creation  of  an  artistic 
and  literary  success. 

The  question  of  the  characters  in  Craddock 
must  inevitably  recall  the  frequent  statements  that 
her  works  are  marred  by  their  sameness  of  view 
and  similarity  of  character  development.  Un- 
consciously this  was  in  the  main  a  genuine  com- 
pliment to  the  success  of  the  author's  effort  to 
execute  a  sane  and  rational  sketch  of  mountain 
men  and  women.  A  people  left  to  themselves 
for  decades  in  the  boundless  wilderness  outside 
the  pale  of  any  progress,  exchanging  no  views  ex- 
cept those  that  originate  within  the  community, 
living  no  life  but  the  simple  routine  of  a  barren 
rural  existence,  could  hardly  be  expected  to  evolve 
any  considerable  amount  of  original  thought  or 
produce  a  race  of  versatile  conversationalists.? 
The  superficial  events  of  the  district  —  its  laws,  its 
customs,  and  social  happenings  —  could  only  agree 

63 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

with  that  same  monotony  of  that  life.  A  more 
complicated  scheme  of  society  might  naturally 
originate  in  a  varied  cosmopolitan  life,  yet  the 
equity  of  the  situation  would  preclude  the  opposite 
in  any  society  distinguished  for  nothing,  except  its 
primitive  simplicity.  So,  while  in  one  light  the 
criticism  is  technically  defensible  as  to  the  montony 
of  the  external  phases  of  the  mountain  life  —  the 
dialect,  the  customs  and  superstitions,  the  duties 
and  the  manners  of  the  community  members  — 
yet  the  analytic  mind  of  the  writer  has  brought 
to  light  the  more  delicate  and  personal  shad- 
ings  of  the  actual  internal  thought  of  those 
people. 

A  modern  American  critic  has  presented  as  a 
qualification  of  a  literary  production  that  it  shall 
be  of  "  enduring  interest."  No  more  striking 
illustration  of  this  literary  truism  could  be  found 
than  in  Craddock's  novels,  for  beneath  the  routine, 
superficial  shell  of  the  mountain  life  the  characters 
of  her  novels  are  vitally  real  and  human  indi- 
viduals. Every  figure  carries  an  eager  and  in- 
sistent claim  of  "  enduring  interest  "  by  the  simple 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

virtue  of  its  humble  humanity,  and  appeals  to  the 
American  mind  in  particular  because  every  move- 
ment and  every  motive  of  the  personages  is  actu- 
ated by  staunch  ideals  of  personal  liberty  and 
innate  justice.  Here  the  social  institutions  of  the 
nation  are  moulded  in  the  rough. 

Diversity  of  character  is  everywhere  evident  in 
fullest  measure.  Without  the  bounds  of  the  con- 
ventional customs,  each  man  and  woman  is  de- 
veloped as  a  distinctive,  personal  unit  fashioned 
in  his  own  particular  mould  and  responding  to  the 
complication  of  his  life  in  his  own  particular  man- 
ner. While  Miss  Murfree  has  been  hampered 
in  the  matter  of  routine  happenings,  she  has  widely 
diversified  her  characters  in  the  relation  of  their 
personal  traits  and  individual  inclinations.  It 
would  be  as  just  to  criticise  the  handling  of 
"  Richard  Feverel,"  dealing  with  life  in  an  intri- 
cate civilization,  with  the  usages  and  mannerisms 
of  conventional  English  society,  as  it  is  to  depre- 
cate the  continual  use  of  the  inherent  features  in 
a  simple  mountain  existence  —  both  must  of  neces- 
sity maintain  the  atmosphere,  the  reality  of  the 

6s 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

setting,  by  retaining  the  staple  fixtures  of  their 
respective  societies. 

In  the  same  manner  that  Dickens  and  Scott  in 
the  British  Isles  and  Cooper  in  America  treated  the 
types  in  the  lower  and  more  ignorant  strata  of  the 
community  with  such  realistic  skill,  Craddock  has 
presented  with  deserved  success  the  same  cast  of 
intellect.  These  mountaineers  may  lack  the  pol- 
ish and  education  of  their  more  fortunate  brethren, 
but  by  the  genius  and  justice  of  the  author's  pen 
the  ennobling  features  of  their  lives  stand  out  in 
brilliant  contrast  in  their  humble  love  for  their 
children  in  their  wretched  cabins  on  the  barren 
declivities,  their  efforts  to  rear  them  in  order  that 
they  may  become  efficient  members  of  the  house- 
hold, their  patient,  ignorant  but  none  the  less 
pathetic  efforts,  to  save  them  from  the  ravages 
of  disease  and  hardship,  savoring  strongly  of  that 
potent,  touching  humanity  which  strikes  the  sym- 
pathetic emotions  in  every  section,  lending  to  their 
life  a  keen  and  vital  interest.  It  is  the  same 
world-wide  spirit  in  the  humble  prose  and  in  the 
humble  dialect  of  the  uncouth  countryman,  as 

66 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

that  pervading  the  polished  verses  of  Hugo's 
"  Lorsque  L'Enfant  Parait." 

Each  volume  has  its  quota  of  rural  types.  The 
officers  of  the  law,  the  moonshiners,  and  the  mur- 
derers; farmers,  millers  and  blacksmiths;  store- 
keepers, hunters,  and  the  itinerant  preacher;  all 
are  commingled  into  the  elemental  mosaic;  Miss 
Murfree  has  succeeded  admirably  in  etching  ac- 
curately with  the  methodical  attention  to  detail 
of  a  De  Maupassant.  She  presents,  however,  her 
subjects  with  something  of  a  sweeter,  nobler  en- 
thusiasm than  that  superb  artist. 

And  there  is  still  another  point  in  favor  of 
her  delineation  in  the  sphere  of  country  char- 
acter. Cooper,  who  dealt  so  intimately  with 
similar  elemental  types,  did  not  make  his  char- 
acters in  their  entirety  as  strikingly  an  intimate  a 
part  of  the  scenes  amid  which  they  moved.  Many 
of  his  characters  failed  to  conform  as  vividly  and 
as  accurately  as  they  should  to  the  calls  that  the 
nature  of  the  situation  made  upon  them.  In 
handling  characters  plainly  identified  with  the  sur- 
roundings and  treating  them  from  such  a  perspec- 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

tive,  Craddock  has  wrought  a  result  of  potential 
effect. 

Beneath  the  rude  exterior  of  the  Tennessee 
mountaineer  there  is  a  wealth  of  superior  qualities. 
Shy  and  sensitive  as  he  is,  the  cursory  view  of  the 
chance  traveler  affords  little  ground  for  an  ade- 
quate appreciation  of  the  tangible  virtues  possessed 
by  the  inhabitants  of  the  Great  Smoky  and  the 
Chilhowee.  Craddock  has  depicted  these  people 
with  infinite  finesse  and  subtle  delicacy  of  work- 
manship. They  become  under  the  magic  of  her 
revealing  studies  men  of  genuine  nobility,  of  lofty 
and  inspiring  character,  full  of  loyalty  and  of  deep 
devotion  to  every  tie.  Men  not  inspired  per- 
petually by  a  bloodthirsty  desire  to  kill  and  slay 
their  fellows  upon  the  whim  of  some  fancied 
provocation,  men  not  animated  by  spirits  antago- 
nistic to  every  canon  of  law  and  order,  but  in- 
spired with  sentiments  and  ideals  creditable  to 
a  more  polished  society.  The  distance  they  are 
removed  in  the  scale  of  real  worth  from  their 
more  fortunate  compatriots  is  one  existing  in  the 
imagination  solely,  for  the  true  mountaineer  as 

68 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

portrayed  in  Craddock's  novels  is  a  man  little 
withdrawn  in  political  and  religious  sentiment 
from  the  "  valley  man."  "  The  ennobling  differ- 
ence between  one  man  and  another, —  between 
one  animal  and  another, —  is  precisely  in  this,  that 
one  feels  more  than  another,"  and,  despite  the 
crudity  of  his  education,  the  Tennesseean  of  the 
hills  in  the  pages  of  Craddock  as  well  as  in  his 
native  slopes  is  a  man  capable  of  deep  and  pure 
emotions. 

No  more  attractive  study  of  rural  personalities 
can  be  found  in  the  treatment  of  American  char- 
acters than  those  figures  of  the  "  Prophet  of  Great 
Smoky  "  and  the  "  Despot  of  Broomsedge  Cove." 
Moral  power  of  a  high  order  is  at  home  in  these 
men.  Miss  Murfree  has  skillfully  sketched  the 
religious  ecstasy,  the  faithful  devotion,  and  the 
moral  sublimity  of  men  by  nature  large  and 
generous,  yet  whose  every  action  is  hindered 
by  accident  of  birth,  by  lack  of  competent 
education. 

On  the  rougher  side  of  the  community's  life  the 
daring  and  fortitude  of  the  fugitive  from  justice, 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

the  moonshiner  and  the  falsely  accused  are  fitting 
partners  of  Dandie  Dinmont,  Rob  Roy,  and 
Claverhouse.  Border  farmer,  freebooter,  soldier 
in  a  bad  cause  they  may  have  been,  nevertheless  the 
lofty,  kindly  natures  that  were  the  mainsprings  of 
each  have  their  counterparts  in  the  identical  quali- 
ties of  the  Tennessee  Mountaineer,  for  "  these 
men  touch  the  ideal  of  heroism  only  in  their  cour- 
age and  faith,  together  with  a  strong,  but  unculti- 
vated, or  rather  mistakenly  applied  intellectual 
power."  Self-confident,  bold,  hardy  men  they 
appear  in  Craddock's  pages  and  justly  so,  for  a 
man's  personality  can  be  but  the  intimate  reflec- 
tion of  his  environment. 

As  in  the  countless  scenes  of  literature,  the 
character  of  woman  is  treated  with  something  of 
a  finer  appreciation,  of  a  rare  gift  of  gentleness 
that  makes  the  creation  glow  with  perpetual  in- 
terest. The  heroines  of  Miss  Murfree's  ro- 
mances are  no  exception  to  this  literary  tradition. 
The  elderly  women  have  that  same  militant, 
dominant  spirit  of  "  Lady  Macbeth,"  but  without 
any  of  the  evil  of  an  "  o'erleaping  ambition." 

70 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

The  gentle  "  Adelicia  "  is  as  fine  a  specimen  of 
true  effort  in  the  sphere  of  a  Christian  peacemaker 
as  could  be  found  —  a  striking  counterpart  to  the 
silent,  appealing  manner  of  her  sister  "  Julia." 
The  inspiring  heroism  and  sacrifice  of  "  Cynthia 
Ware  "  is  of  the  same  fine  texture  as  that  of 
"  Jeannie  Deans  " ;  the  gentle  protecting  spirit  of 
"  Dordinda  Cayce,"  ample  in  its  purity  of  womanly 
sympathy  and  filial  love,  is  likewise  a  production 
of  audacious  magnetism.  "  Marcella  Strobe  "  has 
a  claim,  a  very  definite  claim,  to  a  lofty  position 
in  the  literary  gathering  of  noble  women,  for  there 
is  no  character  in  Charles  Egbert  Craddock's 
works  that  is  more  resplendent  of  dauntless  devo- 
tion and  high-minded,  patient  sacrifice  for  justice 
and  her  love.  As  a  delineation  of  what  heroism 
and  physical  suffering  a  noble  woman  will  undergo, 
it  would  be  necessary  to  mention  one  of  the  most 
attractive  feminine  figures  in  these  sketches  — 
"  Cely  Shaw."  True  to  actual  circumstances,  not 
all  of  these  women  that  people  the  pages  in  this 
series  of  stories  are  of  the  fine  and  courageous 
type;  at  intervals,  the  "  Effie  Deans"  play  their 

71 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

parts  in  the  primitive  drama  as  well  as  the  "  Alice 
Lees." 

One  of  the  finest  expressions  of  feminine  loyalty 
is  found  in  a  little  speech  of  "  Dordinda  Cayce  " 
in  the  "  Prophet  of  Great  Smoky  Mountains." 
The  situation  is  one  of  striking  dramatic  possi- 
bilities. The  spontaneous  expression  of  a  beauti- 
ful, noble  girl,  clad  in  the  shabby  homespun  of 
home-weaving,  standing  alone  upon  the  dismal 
slope  of  the  silent  mountain  amid  the  dripping 
trees  enshrouded  with  the  morning  vapor,  becomes 
a  most  powerful  soliloquy.  "  An'  I'm  boun'  ter 
try  to  holp  him,  ef  I  kin.  I  know  too  much, 
sence  Rick  spoke  las'  night,  ter  let  me  set  an'  fold 
my  hands  in  peace.  'Pears  like  ter  me  ez  that 
thar  all  the  diff'ence  'twixt  humans  an'  beastis, 
ter  holp  one  another  some.  An'  if  a  human  won't, 
'pears  like  ter  me  ez  the  Lord  hev  wasted  a  soul 
on  that  critter." 

It  is  equally  true  to  speak  of  Miss  Murfree  as 
Brownell  speaks  of  Cooper,  "  some,  at  all  events, 
of  those  gentle  and  placid  beings  that  he  was  so 
fond  of  creating  are  very  real."  Nevertheless, 

72 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

the  placidity  and  the  amiable  bending  to  the 
moods  of  fate  so  evident  in  the  women  of  Cooper 
is  markedly  lacking  in  the  heroines  of  Craddock's 
tales,  who  are  more  nearly  the  primitive,  bold, 
and  virile  offspring  of  a  civilization  in  its  first 
youth,  accustomed  to  contend  with  the  rigours  of 
an  unsettled  existence.  The  sacrifices  of  their 
placidity  and  amiability  does  not  imply,  however, 
any  corresponding  sacrifice  of  reality  which  is,  to 
the  contrary,  enlivened  and  revitalized  to  a  still 
greater  extent. 

The  life  of  Miss  Mary  Noailes  Murfree  has 
been  one  particularly  fitted  by  nature  and  chance 
circumstance  to  obtain  the  accurate  material 
evinced  in  her  character  work.  She  was  born 
in  Tennessee  on  an  old  plantation  called  "  Grant- 
lands  "  on  January  twenty-fourth,  1850,  where 
she  lived  for  six  years.  Thence  she  went  to  Nash- 
ville, remaining  in  that  city  for  seventeen  years, 
finally  moving  to  St.  Louis.  A  return  was  made 
within  a  short  period  to  her  native  state. 

While  a  child  she  was  afflicted  by  a  fever  which 
resulted  in  partial  paralysis,  inducing  permanent 

73 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

lameness.  Thus  somewhat  barred  from  an  ac- 
tive participation  in  the  customary  pastimes  of  a 
most  robust  childhood,  she  naturally  gravitated 
for  her  amusement  to  the  companionship  of  books. 
This  was  but  the  beginning  of  a  long  and  remarka- 
bly excellent  training  of  a  mind  already  most  fa- 
vorably endowed  for  the  particular  sphere  of  work 
which  she  was  destined  to  pursue.  Her  educa- 
tion was  obtained  both  in  the  South  and  in  the 
North,  followed  by  an  extensive  study  at  home. 
While  in  Tennessee  it  was  the  custom  of  the  fam- 
ily to  spend  the  summer  at  a  mountain  community 
named  "  Bersheba  ";  during  the  war  residence  at 
this  spot  was  rendered  compulsory  because  the 
contending  armies  made  inhabitation  of  the  old 
homestead  an  impossibility.  Thus,  here  it  was 
that  her  keen  powers  of  observation  and  active 
analysis  were  given  full  play  in  gathering  ideas 
and  devising  plans  for  future  success  in  delineat- 
ing mountain  life. 

The  plots  of  these  tales  are  all  simple.  There 
is  nothing  especially  intricate  or  involved,  for  it 
is  merely  a  section  of  real  life  removed  from  its 

74 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

physical  surroundings  to  the  printed  page,  done 
in  a  manner,  however,  to  command  intense  interest 
in  the  trivialities  of  a  rather  uneventful  existence. 
Following  the  method  of  George  Eliot,  she  draws 
the  scenes  as  a  series  of  every  day  incidents  hap- 
pening in  their  natural  sequence  without  any  ap- 
parent regard  as  to  the  literary  effect.  Craddock 
moves  from  incident  to  incident  in  the  routine  of 
the  mountain  dweller's  life  as  George  Eliot  let 
her  fancy  make  much  or  little  of  the  inconsequent 
flurries  in  the  I9th  century  middle  English  coun- 
try life.  The  culminations  of  the  plots,  the  dra- 
matic scenes,  and  unexpected  denouements  are  all 
vivid  witnesses  to  the  writer's  art.  Many  situa- 
tions rise  to  the  plane  of  dramatic  intensity  termi- 
nating in  a  strong,  emotional  denouement,  realiz- 
ing in  maximum  measure  the  several  possibilities 
of  the  actor's  parts.  It  would  be  very  easy  to 
degenerate  into  melodramatic  rant  and  bombast 
in  these  sketches  of  elemental  passions.  Miss 
Murfree  maintains  to  the  contrary  a  firm  grip 
upon  the  "  spine  of  the  story,"  finally  turning  the 
trivial  incidents,  the  petty  occasions,  the  com- 

75 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

munity  events,  into  a  harmonious  composition 
wherein  truth  to  life  and  perfect  versimilitude  are 
commingled  into  one  graceful  unity. 

The  plots,  and  the  situations  in  which  they  are 
laid,  demand  moderate  length.  In  this  aspect  of 
the  work  Craddock  has  erred  somewhat.  Her  in- 
clinations to  be  accurate  and  to  faithfully  repre- 
sent the  actual  state  of  mountain  life  have  led  her 
to  trespass  upon  the  reader's  good  will  in  a  too 
large  a  degree ;  for  it  would  be  well  if  she  realized, 
"  not  that  the  story  need  be  long,  but  that  it  will 
take  a  long  time  to  make  it  short."  The  capacity 
for  sustained  attention  is  exhausted  by  the  lengthy 
exposition  of  "  pathetic  circumstance  and  dramatic 
relations  "  wherein  the  successive  incidents  are 
fraught  with  their  own  particular  high,  emotional 
tension.  It  is  undoubtedly  this  tedium  of  emo- 
tional crises  or  series  of  continually  exciting  situa- 
tions that  is  largely  responsible  for  the  impres- 
sion that  the  volumes  suffer  from  sameness  or 
monotony. 

Individually  these  movements  are  of  considera- 
ble intrinsic  worth.  Commanding  scenes  replete 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

with  pure  dramatic  fire  stand  out  in  silhouette 
against  this  varied  background.  Notable  is  the 
arrest  of  the  militant  "  Prophet  "  of  Great  Smoky 
standing  in  the  pulpit  delivering  an  impassioned 
recital  of  his  fall  from  divine  grace ;  at  this  tense 
moment  the  hostile  sheriff  strides  to  the  rude  ros- 
trum and  evicts  the  trembling  orator  from  his 
stand  of  sacred  authority.  The  climax  is  reached 
when  the  officer  of  the  law  lays  his  instrument  of 
authority  upon  the  open  Bible;  u  Ye  can  read, 
pa'son,"  he  said.  "  Ye  kin  read  the  warrant  fur 
your  arrest." 

Miss  Murfree's  plots  are  constructed  with  an 
idea  of  presenting  a  whole  group  of  characters, 
their  friends  and  kindred  of  the  clan,  and  the  mis- 
cellaneous what  not  that  may  perchance  drift 
across  the  rural  horizon.  She  is  apparently  de- 
termined to  give  the  characterization  of  the  ex- 
istence accurately,  fully,  and  with  a  dispassionate 
scientific  method  tempered  by  whatever  art  such 
a  course  would  permit.  She  is  not  tempted  pri- 
marily by  any  allurements  of  artistic  perversion 
for  art's  sake.  It  is  this  very  quality  that  lends 

77 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

the  most  valuable  property  and  enduring  attrac- 
tion to  her  romances.  Hawthorne  had  no  such 
particular  mission  of  psychological  investigation, 
yet  the  spirit  of  Craddock  is  of  the  same  artistic 
type.  As  a  consequence  of  the  former's  freedom 
from  giving  such  an  absolute  portrayal,  his  plots 
have  "  a  unity,  an  unwavering  creative  purpose  " 
which  is  not  the  fortunate  possession  of  Craddock. 

This  is  not  intended  to  deny  the  creative  ability 
to  Craddock.  It  is  observed  merely  to  illustrate 
the  material  difference  in  the  limiting  circum- 
stances, for  Miss  Murfree  is  undoubtedly  one  of 
the  most  original,  most  creative  of  the  Southern 
writers.  Hawthorne  constructed  primarily  with 
an  artist's  eye;  Craddock  with  the  finely  adjusted 
ideal  of  a  scientific  delineation.  The  former  pos- 
sessed an  infinite  capacity  for  subordination  and 
synthesis  —  in  large  measure  indicative  of  his 
talent;  the  latter  writer,  from  the  nature  of  her 
material,  could  not  produce  such  artistic  contrasts 
and  dramatic  unities. 

Within  the  realm  of  the  humble  mountain  trag- 
edies lies  the  corresponding  germ,  the  identical 

78 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

primitive  spark  that  burst  into  such  immortal 
flame  in  the  closing  scenes  of  "  Hernani."  The 
same  pride  of  race  and  racial  instinct,  the  same 
elemental  passions  pulsate  in  the  minds  of  actors, 
the  same  devoted,  self-sacrificing  love  of  woman 
throbs  in  the  untutored  mountaineers  as  in  the 
more  polished  players  of  Hugo.  Consequently,  it 
is  a  matter 'for  little  amazement  that  the  romances 
and  tales  of  Craddock  instantly  attracted  serious 
literary  attention. 

Able  and  extraordinary  powers  of  description 
have  proved  a  fruitful  source  of  dispraise.  In 
the  majority  of  Miss  Murfree's  works  the  unwar- 
rantable use  of  numerous  descriptions  is  a  very 
serious  detriment,  one  that  has  furnished  much 
ground  for  those  who  are  inclined  to  depreciate 
her  powers.  That  she  is  endowed  with  a  nicety 
of  imagination,  a  sharpness  of  perception,  alert  at 
once  to  detect  the  most  subtle  shades  and  tints  in 
the  natural  kaleidoscope,  and,  at  the  same  moment, 
to  translate  her  impressions  into  passages  of  in- 
spiring beauty,  is  not  to  be  denied.  Perhaps  it  is 
her  purpose  so  to  imbue  the  whole  fabric  of  the 

79 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

sketches  with  the  dominating  beauty  of  the  moun- 
tain scenery  that  the  entire  composition  is  laden 
with  the  natural  atmosphere.  To  produce  such 
a  result  her  facility  in  this  direction  would  demand 
far  less  of  nature  descriptions  than  she  has  used; 
doubtless  the  temptation  to  employ  such  a  faculty, 
over  which  she  has  the  most  complete  mastery, 
was  one  she  found  difficult  to  resist.  The  con- 
stant insertion  of  irrelevant  bursts  of  ecstasy  over 
the  multitude  of  mountain  beauties,  in  situations 
of  dramatic  importance,  is  discouraging  to  those 
following  eagerly  the  fortunes  of  a  Jack  Espey 
or  a  Cely  Shaw,  yet  to  insert  some  telling  piece 
of  natural  beauty  as  a  peaceful  interlude  to  re- 
lieve the  emotional  tension  is  a  mark  of  skillful 
dramatic  handling.  It  is  a  stable  method  of  many 
masters.  Shakespeare  has  "  Duncan "  remark 
upon  the  beauty  of  his  fatal  resting  place  soon  to 
be  filled  with  the  horror  of  an  outraged  hos- 
pitality. 

"  This  castle  hath  a  pleasant  seat;  the  air 
Nimbly  and  sweetly  recommends  itself 
Unto  our  gentle  senses." 
80 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

By  this  a  distinct  and  useful  purpose  was  ac- 
complished. 

Her  skillful  depicting  of  interior  arrangements, 
of  mountain  dens  and  moonshiners'  retreats,  of 
the  simple  household  duties  and  domestic  difficul- 
ties, reflects  a  dexterous  use  of  the  scenic  prop- 
erties. No  one  watches  the  setting  of  the  stage 
with  more  care  than  Miss  Murfree.  She  has  the 
faculty  of  differentiating  between  the  several 
values  of  light  and  shade,  of  delicate  colorings 
and  transient  reflections  in  the  natural  setting,  so 
that  the  entire  background  may  be  in  harmony  with 
the  figures  in  the  rural  stage.  Everywhere  there 
are  the  most  tangible  signs  that  Craddock  is 
making  a  determined  effort  to  follow  the  com- 
mandment of  Poe  —  constant  creation  of  an  at- 
mosphere. 

Miss  Murfree  possesses  that  remarkable  power 
tp  transmute  the  illusive  witchery  of  mountain 
grandeur  into  the  dispassionate  garb  of  prose. 
Her  love  of  nature  is  a  dominant,  vitalizing  bond 
which  she  submits  to  with  grace  and  genuine 
love  for  it.  She  seems  to  experience  the  delight 

81 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

of  a  Lamartine  in  the  seductive  charms  of  a  mag- 
nificent landscape  bathed  in  the  voluptuous  sheen 
of  a  springtime  day.  Rioting  in  a  galaxy  of  ex- 
pressions for  the  multitude  of  color  varieties  in  a 
manner  to  rival  a  Swinburne  in  the  gracious  flow 
of  language  about  a  trivial  topic.  "  Bronze- 
green,"  "  chrome-green,"  "  slate  gray,"  "  ultra- 
marine," "  lapis  lazuli,"  and  "  azure  "  deck  the 
page  until  the  scene  rises  in  all  its  impressive  mag- 
nificence as  an  actual,  visual  experience.  Ruskin 
exclaimed  about  the  light  upon  the  Campagna,  "  I 
cannot  call  it  color,  it  was  a  conflagration,"  like- 
wise the  reader  must  be  moved  to  exclaim  upon 
the  dazzling  beauties  of  this  virgin  wilderness  in 
the  hills.  On  every  hand  the  rosy-flushed  azalea, 
the  mountain  laurel,  the  snow-white  lily  of  the  Chil- 
howee,  the  shy  woodland  violet  in  its  dusky  laven- 
der hood,  form  beds  of  perfume  beneath  the  resin- 
ous pines;  down  these  natural  vistas  between  the 
shaded  tree  boles  the  stately  cumulous  clouds  ride 
before  the  background  of  a  Southern  topaz  sky. 

Through  her  inclination  to  the  beauties  of  the 
sky,  Miss  Murfree  has  made  herself  a  veritable 

82 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

literary  astronomer.  The  stars  and  comets,  the 
manifestations  of  celestial  phenomena,  are  made 
to  do  duty  as  agents  of  the  plot  machinery. 
"  His  Vanished  Star  "  and  many  other  tales  utilize 
the  superstitious  awe  in  which  the  ignorant  and  un- 
lettered hold  the  terrifying  oddities  in  the  natural 
scheme  of  things.  She  is  a  well  informed  and 
competent  observer  of  the  celestial  happenings. 
The  use  and  reference  to  the  sky  and  cloud  ef- 
fects, to  the  sunsets  and  the  commingling  of  color 
in  the  heavens,  are  frequent  and  ably  done  —  a 
masterly  and  experienced  hand  executing  charming 
descriptive  effects. 

Every  story  is  replete  with  the  devotion  of  a 
nature  lover:  There  is  something  of  Thoreau  in 
the  sketches  of  the  woodland  creatures  and  the 
homes  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  trackless  realms 
with  the  many  mysteries  of  the  natural  store- 
house. The  swaying  pines  and  chestnuts,  the 
rhododendron  and  the  mountain  lily,  are  as  ac- 
curately etched  upon  the  imagination  as  if  trans- 
muted to  the  printed  page  by  some  mysterious 
alchemy.  With  that  photographic  exactness  in 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

description  that  has  so  distinguished  Kipling,  Miss 
Murfree  manages  to  tell  her  view  of  natural 
phenomena  as  well  as  to  portray  with  every  sem- 
blance of  actuality  the  character  of  her  moun- 
tain acquaintances.  Not  alone  possessing  an  am- 
ple astronomical  knowledge,  she  has  combined 
with  this  a  keen  watchfulness  for  the  variations 
of  animal  and  plant  life.  Through  each  page 
the  scientific  nature  lover  is  constantly  in  evidence. 
The  geological  formations  of  Great  Smoky  and 
the  Chilhowee  are  presented  with  singular  fidelity 
to  detail. 

Craddock's  powers  of  description  are  not  con- 
fined, however,  to  the  portrayal  of  natural  phe- 
nomena. The  physical  characteristics  of  th« 
people,  the  oddities  of  speech  and  dress,  the  in- 
teriors of  their  homes  and  the  illicit  stills,  are 
masterfully  presented  to  the  eye.  There  is  the 
pervading  evidence  of  an  artist's  sense  for  har- 
monious color  schemes  and  vivid  contrasts  revel- 
ing in  this  unexplored  field  of  creative  work. 

A  robust,  style,  distinguished  by  its  unusual 
clarity  and  masculine  method,  is  the  salient  feature 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

of  this  author's  exposition.  A  generous  use  of 
epithet,  varying  from  the  prosaic  to  the  most 
poetic  turns  of  speech,  as  she  becomes  inspired 
with  the  grandeur  of  the  gorgeous  panorama 
spread  before  the  eye  on  every  hand.  At  times 
her  remarkable  power  in  describing  the  superb 
solitudes  of  the  Bald  and  Chilhowee  leads  her 
into  digressions  and  lengthy  ramblings  in  the  very 
execution  of  which  the  style  loses  its  chief  virtue, 
seeming  to  share  in  the  vacillating  forgetfulness. 
It  matches  in  tone  and  color  the  ecstasy  of  the 
author,  who  seems  at  intervals  utterly  enraptured 
with  the  scenery,  oblivious  of  every  other  claim; 
instead  of  the  terse,  clear  Anglo-Saxon  words 
*nated  to  a  distinctly  American  landscape  and  a 
particularly  English  people,  she  borrows  from  all 
sources  terrifying,  high-sounding  phrases  inappro- 
priate for  such  an  occasion.  Phrases  too  lengthy, 
too  sonorous,  making  of  each  scene  that  should 
have  been  distinguished  for  its  simplicity,  instead, 
a  top-heavy,  irrelevant  word  display. 

This  feature  has  worked  a  most  pernicious  re- 
sult.    In  those  very  passages  of  superb  descrip- 

85 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

tive  analysis,  she  demolishes  the  true  ring  of  each 
sentence  by  either  some  characteristic  repetition 
which  has  occurred  numberless  times  elsewhere  or 
some  ill-chosen  vagrant  from  another  type  of 
vocabulary.  While  the  author  has  in  general 
handled  well  the  descriptive  phrases,  the  delicately 
modulated  structures,  the  perfectly  adapted  sen- 
tences, nevertheless,  the  perfection  of  the  entity 
has  been  visibly  marred  by  such  lapses  from  a 
purely  graceful  style.  Such,  for  instance,  as  re- 
ferring to  the  sun  in  the  evening  as  "  the  last 
segment  of  the  vermillion  sphere  " ;  cows  called 
with  seeming  gusto  "  bovine  vagrants  ";  the  moon 
repeatedly  "gibbous";  the  simple  brook  is  de- 
scribed as  "  the  tinkling  of  a  mountain  rill  —  a 
keen  detached  appogiatura  rising  occasionally 
above  the  monody  of  its  munderous  flow."  She 
frequently  refers  to  the  small  insects  as  having 
songs  "  charged  with  somnolently  melodious  post- 
meridian sentiment."  Endless  recurrence  of  this 
brand  of  phrase  must  of  necessity  mar  a  composi- 
tion no  matter  how  masterly. 

Yet  rarely  has  dialogue  been  more  finely  ren- 
86 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

dered  in  native  dialect  than  in  Craddock's  lines. 
Everywhere  resplendent  with  the  gift  of  interpret- 
ing the  myriad  lineaments  of  the  shy  mountaineers, 
bounteously  supplied  with  an  experience  calculated 
to  penetrate  the  mysteries  of  their  reticent,  re- 
tired dispositions,  nurtured  in  the  solitude  of  these 
coves  and  forests,  Craddock  has  accomplished  a 
marvelously  accurate  exposition  of  the  countless 
phases  of  human  nature  in  the  hill  country.  The 
ability  to  keep  in  true  perspective  the  slow,  rumi- 
nating conversation  of  this  hasteless  people,  with 
their  countless  seeming  digressions  and  irrelevant 
statements,  while  concurrently  to  maintain  the  in- 
terest of  the  spectator,  finally  using  each  digres- 
sion, every  single  reference,  as  a  separate  pig- 
ment for  the  closing  dramatic  composition,  re- 
quires the  mastery  of  an  essentially  delicate  art. 
Within  a  single  speech  the  reproduction  of  a  dia- 
lect and  the  psychologic  interpretation  of  the 
speaker's  character  are  reflected  in  the  drawling 
intonations,  the  somnolent  manner  of  enunciation, 
or  the  flitting  from  topic  to  topic  in  the  speech  of 
some  of  the  characters,  as  a  "  Miss  Bates  "  of 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

Jane  Austin's  imagination,  or  the  meandering  con- 
versation of  a  "  Mrs.  Nickleby." 

Miss  Murfree  has  been  charged  with  an  undue 
amount  of  such  conversational  digressions  as  well 
as  the  unnecessary  wealth  of  description.  This 
particular  criticism  is  not  well  founded.  The 
numerous  digressions  have  been  made  because  of 
the  need  to  insert  suitable  agents  which  should  be 
at  once  attractive  in  themselves  and  at  the  same 
time  maintain  the  semblance  of  real  conditions  in 
the  mountaineer's  method  of  speech.  A  cursory 
view  of  the  speeches  and  tales  as  a  production  con- 
forming to  some  particular  rule  of  dramatic  unity 
is  highly  unjust;  there  are  real  lives  portrayed  in 
these  volumes  and  fidelity  to  actual  conditions  must 
in  justice  be  well  considered  also. 

Again,  these  digressions  furnish  in  large  meas- 
ure a  means  of  indicating  those  lapses  into  slow 
thought  between  his  fitful  efforts  at  conversation 
when  the  mountaineer  is  aroused,  perchance,  from 
his  constitutional  apathy.  Thus  it  is  that,  in  nu- 
merous cases,  the  apparently  purposeless  digres- 
sions and  unwarranted  employment  of  nature  de- 

88 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

scriptions,  faultless  and  beautiful  in  themselves, 
have  in  reality  a  justified  use,  demanded  by  actual 
conditions. 

Properly  controlled,  dialect  is  a  potent  instru- 
ment. Native  speech  is  so  often  palely  imitated 
by  a  mere  translation  of  the  author's  own  thoughts 
into  the  ridiculous  jargon  composed  of  note  book 
oddities.  It  can  rise  to  the  dignity  of  the  greatest 
literature  no  matter  how  humble  the  source.  A 
realistic  treatment  of  such  a  subject  can  only  come 
through  the  writer's  absorbing  the  very  spirit  of 
the  people.  To  Miss  Murfree's  everlasting  credit 
she  has  been  the  most  faithful  expositor  of  her 
characters  in  reproducing  the  genius  of  their  primi- 
tive American  life  in  the  tangible  form  of  a  per- 
fect dialect.  Whatever  service  in  the  perpetua- 
tion of  the  Hoosier  dialect  and  the  spirit  of  the 
Middle  West  James  Whitcomb  Riley  has  per- 
formed, it  has  been  duplicated  in  point  of  histori- 
cal trustworthiness  by  Charles  Egbert  Craddock. 

With  the  combination  of  a  faultless  dialect  and 
a  thoroughly  intimate  knowledge  of  the  laws,  cus- 
toms, and  superstitions,  Miss  Murfree  has  sue- 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

ceeded  in  presenting  a  singularly  accurate  delinea- 
tion. Historians  may  come  and  social  philoso- 
phers may  go,  but  it  may  be  safely  ventured  that 
no  more  intrinsically  worthy  contribution  to  the 
annals  of  the  nation  has  been  made  than  the  per- 
petual embodiment  of  a  little  known  section  of 
people  in  the  Southern  Mountains  through  the  ac- 
curate agency  of  their  simple  dialect.  What  an 
intimate  reflection  of  their  nature  for  those  who 
may  pursue  the  records  in  the  future ! 

One  definitive  feature  of  every  piece  of  writing 
in  this  author's  work  is  her  profound  knowledge 
of  things  legal.  Before  her  identity  was  estab- 
lished, this  feature  was  considered  the  most  tangi- 
ble evidence  that  "  that  man  Craddock  "  was  a 
lawyer.  Mr.  Aldrich,  then  editor  of  the  "  At- 
lantic Monthly,"  by  whom  many  of  her  manu- 
scripts were  published,  prided  himself  upon  his 
addressing  his  letters  to  "  M.  N.  Murfree,  Esq." 
It  was  something  of  a  revelation  when  a  quiet 
young  woman  presented  herself  in  the  editorial 
rooms  as  Charles  Egbert  Craddock.  This  knowl- 
edge of  the  law  was  gained  as  a  part  of  her  educa- 

90 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

tion,  which  included  a  large  reading  course  on 
legal  subjects.  Her  association  with  her  brothers 
must  have  given  her  the  markedly  masculine  view 
which  is  a  prominent  characteristic  of  all  her  writ- 
ings. From  this  source,  also,  must  have  come  her 
grasp  of  boy  character  which  she  has  so  fittingly 
used  in  mountain  personages  —  most  of  all  in  her 
juveniles  —  "  Down  The  Ravine, "  "  The  Young 
Mountaineers/'  "  The  Story  of  Keendon  Bluffs," 
and  "  The  Champions." 

Slow,  ambling,  a  tiresome  tedium  of  speech  may 
characterize  the  mountaineer  much  of  his  time  in 
these  tales,  but  at  intervals  his  passionate  utter- 
ances reveal  that  he  has  lost  nothing  of  the 
trenchant,  virile  power  of  his  Anglo-Saxon  tongue. 
Disuse  or  infrequent  application  does  not  hinder 
him  from  attaining  in  the  heights  of  his  emotion 
the  most  biting  sarcasm  or  the  most  virulent  ridi- 
cule. The  noble  enthusiasm  and  angry  denuncia- 
tion of  the  fanatic  circuit-rider  stir  his  rude  audi- 
ence to  religious  frenzy  with  as  compelling  an 
utterance  as  ever  passed  the  lips  of  a  vigorous 
people. 

91 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

Humor,  with  its  bed-fellow  pathos,  abounds  in 
this  virile  speech.  Touches  like  this  are  frequent : 
"  4  Mister  Stubbs,'  Rufe  say  mighty  perlite;  *  fool- 
ing with  me  is  like  makin'  faces  at  a  rattlesnake; 
it  may  be  satisfying  to  the  feelin's,  but  t'aint  safe.'  ' 
All  of  which  meant  to  insinuate  the  ferocity  of 
Rufe. 

And  again  reference  is  made  to  the  delays  of 
the  law  in  a  sarcastic,  half-wit  manner  as  in  this: 
"  '  Yes,  sir,  'minds  me  of  a  slow  mule-race  all  the 
time,  the  law  does,'  said  Bowles."  The  uncon- 
scious humor  in  Jane  Elmiry's  speech,  who  was  a 
domestic  general  of  no  mean  ability,  to  her  sick 
husband  who  had  querulously  asked  for  his  nour- 
ishment. "  '  Tain't  time  yit,"  replied  the  patient 
wife.  "  The  Doctor  'lowed  ez  the  aig  must  be 
spang  fraish;  an'  ez  old  Topknot  lay  ter  the 
minit  every  day,  I'm  a  'waitin'  on  her."  The 
crowning  touch  is  the  quavering  recollection  of  an 
old  dame  in  admonishing  the  feeble  rising  genera- 
tion. "  I  'member  when  I  was  a  gal  whisky  was 
so  cheap  that  up  to  the  store  at  the  settlemint 
they'd  have  a  bucket  set  full  o'  whisky  an'  a  gourd 

92 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

free  fur  all  comers,  an'  another  bucket  alongside 
with  water  to  season  it.  An'  the  way  that  thar 
water  lasted  war  surprisin' ;  that  it  war." 

Through  it  all,  there  is  the  infinite  pathos  of 
life,  full  red-blooded  life,  pulsating  with  very  hu- 
man foibles  and  emotions,  throbbing  with  very 
personal  ambitions  and  desires.  Features  of  this 
stamp  make  the  books  intensely  interesting.  It  is 
the  genuine  humanity  in  every  tale  that  makes  the 
constant,  vital  appeal  to  every  one  with  a  spark 
of  interest  in  his  fellows.  To  the  most  indiffer- 
ent of  readers,  whether  he  prefers  the  romance  or 
no,  there  must  be  borne  in  upon  him  the  realization 
that  these  speeches  are  not  the  smoke  of  an  artist's 
fancy,  but  are  the  intensely  human  utterances  of 
a  vigorous  people. 

Conforming  to  the  main  purposes  in  a  series 
of  tales  like  these,  Miss  Murfree  has  realized 
them  both.  The  first  is  an  artistic  one;  the  other 
is  a  consciously  ethical,  intellectual  ideal.  Crad- 
dock  has  shown  power  versatile  enough  to  exe- 
cute an  excellent  story,  full  of  dramatic  possibili- 
ties, to  pursue  the  plan  with  scientific  methods, 

93 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

and  to  induce  a  lively  interest  throughout  the  nar- 
rative. She  possessed  the  ability  to  transmit  to 
paper  the  seductive  charm  of  mountain  color,  the 
murmur  of  a  hidden  rill,  a  sketch  of  homely  do- 
mestic life,  or  a  fiery  speech  of  a  religious  fanatic, 
mingling  these  factors  into  an  entity  of  surprising 
beauty.  Of  the  two  purposes,  the  purely  educa- 
tional or  didactic  is  the  most  superior  feature,  the 
most  lasting  recommendation.  Both  purposes 
have  many  faults  in  execution.  The  latter  pur- 
pose, however,  is  a  possession  of  more  than  tran- 
sient interest.  The  works  are  distinctly  social 
studies.  Craddock  has  written  many  stories  about 
several  localities  in  the  South,  but  such  volumes 
as  these  will  be  the  basis  of  her  reputation  as  a 
Southern  writer.  There  is  ample  justification  for 
this  type  of  works,  if  justification  is  needed  at  all, 
in  that  such  stories  are  a  trustworthy  impersona- 
tion, a  memorable  record,  of  a  little  known  di- 
vision of  the  English  race  whose  ancestors  a  few 
generations  removed  dared  to  conquer  the  wilder- 
ness, to  aid  in  rearing  a  stupendous  fabric  of  hu- 
man liberty;  of  men  many  of  whom  furnished 

94 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

hosts  of  the  bravest  in  the  ranks  of  the  Federal 
and  Confederate  armies  distinguishing  themselves 
by  signal  service  and  uncompromising  rectitude  of 
character.  A  romantic  history  of  such  a  society 
takes  its  place  with  the  lives  of  great  men  and  the 
narrations  of  great  events;  it  makes  a  distinct  con- 
tribution to  national  annals.  That  is  the  essen- 
tial reason  for  its  creation  and  is  the  argument 
for  the  perpetuation  of  these  books  as  a  vital 
part  of  the  literature. 

In  fact,  this  is  the  point  whereon  this  whole 
group  of  writers  on  Southern  subjects  rest  much 
of  their  claim  to  continued  recognition.  Allen, 
Cable,  Harris  and  Page  each  has  devoted  himself 
to  a  particular  phase  of  Southern  existence, 
whether  of  a  whole  state  or  of  a  large  section  of 
his  home  land;  and  Miss  "  Craddock  "  has  like- 
wise conspicuously  devoted  her  talents  with  keen- 
ness and  success.  As  Mill  philosophizes  upon  the 
economics  of  national  policy,  "  no  nation  in  which 
eccentricity  is  a  matter  of  reproach  can  be  in  a 
healthy  state,"  so  we  see  in  the  variety  and  mix- 
ture of  our  own  eccentrically  assembled  peoples 

95 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

and  communities  a  healthy  and  prosperous  phase 
of  the  Southland.  The  study  of  the  oddly  mixed 
factions  and  races  is  one  of  considerable  worth 
to  the  nation,  besides  its  historic  value  or  because 
it  is  an  artistic  addition  to  the  literature. 

This  school  could  be  aptly  termed,  therefore, 
the  Social  Historians.  They  have  deviated  from 
the  beaten  course  in  historical  novels  where  a 
war,  a  revolution,  or  the  gaining  of  an  empire 
is  the  basic  fabric  for  the  construction  of  the 
drama.  Their  mission  is  the  recording  of  the  so- 
cial history  of  many  phases  and  angles  of  Southern 
life  through  the  vehicle  of  a  story  or  romance 
whose  most  permanent  interest  lies  in  its  relation 
to  actual  conditions,  not  primarily  to  the  rules  of 
an  art  or  to  the  progress  of  some  national  ag- 
grandizement. 

Miss  Murfree  belongs  distinctly  to  this  school 
of  Social  Historians.  In  this  particular  field,  her 
power  is  wide  and  far-reaching.  Here  is  an 
unique  addition  to  national,  to  Southern  litera- 
ture. She  may  have  made  some  errors,  may  have 
committed  many  mistakes  in  technique;  but  when 


CHARLES  EGBERT  CRADDOCK 

the  entire  evidence  is  brought  in,  the  tales  of 
Charles  Egbert  Craddock  will  stand  specimens 
of  high  creative  ability  and  of  high  dramatic  de- 
velopment replete  with  a  wealth  of  humor,  a 
wealth  of  human  appeal,  a  wealth  of  genuine  elo- 
quence. 


97 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 


"  I  feed  the  clouds,  the  rainbows,  and  the  flowers, 
With  their  ethereal  colours;  the  Moon's  Globe 
And  the  pure  stars  in  their  eternal  bowers, 
Are  cinctured  with  my  power  as  with  a  robe" 

-^-Shelley. 

IN  one  of  the  tiers  of  the  Corcoran  Art  Gallery 
hangs  a  striking  picture  of  an  old  Southern 
homestead  at  twilight.     The  Grecian  por- 
tico is  barely  discernible  through  the  even- 
ing haze;  the  fan-shaped  transom  and  the  an- 
cient   doorway    have    faded    imperceptibly    into 
the  enmassed  fast-gathering  shadows;  on  one  side 
the  columns  are  hidden  in  part  by  the  delicate 
tracery  of  an   overhanging  beech;   in   the   fore- 
ground, at  the  base  of  the  stoop,  the  dimly  out- 
lined figures  of  a  man  and  woman  stand,  clad  in 
the  mode  of  sixty  years  ago.     The  whole  scene 
is  bathed  in  the  mellow  sapphire  tones  of  the  de- 
parting Southern  day. 

101 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

Such  a  setting  was  typical  of  ante-bellum  Ken- 
tucky life.  Nowhere,  perhaps,  has  the  Creator 
been  more  bountiful  with  His  gifts  than  in  Ken- 
tucky's dominions;  walled  in  on  the  east  by  the 
towering  majesty  of  the  Cumberland  Mountains; 
skirted  on  the  north  by  the  turbulent  Ohio  and 
bordered  on  the  west  by  the  meandering  tide  of 
the  Mississippi,  this  fertile  blue  grass  region  has 
ever  abounded  with  all  the  natural  blessings. 
What  a  glorious  expanse  must  have  met  the  eyes 
of  the  first  caravan  of  settlers,  when  they  gained 
the  summit  of  the  Cumberland  Peaks!  The  un- 
dulating forest  lay  as  a  verdant  foot-rug  at  the 
base  of  some  gigantic  throne,  interwoven  by  sil- 
very skeins  of  water  flashing  in  the  clear  Kentucky 
sunlight.  The  priceless  lands  of  the  new  world 
became  the  home  of  the  stanch  English  and  Scotch- 
Irish  who  immigrated  from  Virginia,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  the  Carolinas  to  found  the  empire  of 
the  West  —  first  "virgin  bride"  of  the  United 
States. 

It  was  among  these  environs  of  his  native  State 
that  James  Lane  Allen  has  arisen,  the  master 

102 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

painter  of  the  Old  and  the  New.  The  depicting 
of  the  quaint  old  characters  of  his  home;  the  hu- 
morous incidents  of  the  life  about  him;  the  de- 
lineating of  the  ideals  of  his  friends  and  neigh- 
bors; the  painting  of  the  homely  phases  of  tov/n 
and  country  existence  mark  him  as  a  genius  with 
the  invaluable  gift  of  penetrative  insight,  suffi- 
cient to  lay  bare  the  workings  of  his  characters 
in  all  the  integrity  and  force  of  reality.  He  has 
fittingly  realized  that  the  true  field  of  his  intel- 
lect and  powers  is  among  the  surroundings  of  his 
life;  no  excursion  is  necessary  into  the  tropical 
realms  for  the  exotic  beauties  of  nature,  for  his 
home  is  her  riotous  storehouse;  no  far  expedition 
is  demanded  to  find  nobility  of  mind  and  char- 
acter, for  he  has  his  acquaintances;  no  foray  is 
essential  into  the  unknown  for  adventures,  as  the 
more  vital  tragedies  of  his  State  abound  about 
him. 

Mr.  Allen  has  variously  touched  the  first  be- 
ginnings of  life  in  his  State;  has  perpetuated  the 
memories  of  the  ante-bellum  homesteads  with  no 
less  subtle  fidelity  than  that  effort  of  the  master 

103 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

of  the  brush  whose  work  hangs  upon  the  walls  of 
the  Art  Gallery;  has  outlined,  at  other  times,  the 
results  of  civil  disunion  whose  consequences  were 
so  disastrous  to  himself;  finally,  he  revealed  the 
lives  of  his  fellow  men  amid  the  new  conditions 
of  the  modern  regime.  Throughout  his  produc- 
tions the  love  of  nature  is  paramount;  this  is  his 
mission  —  to  stencil  on  the  images  of  men  his 
home  land  as  it  is,  where  the  nature's  forces  and 
his  neighbors'  play  their  little  drama. 

As  a  dreamer  and  thinker,  the  mysterious  beau- 
ties of  Mother  Earth  have  a  powerful  hold  upon 
Mr.  Allen's  imagination.  The  tale  of  "  A  Ken- 
tucky Cardinal,"  and  its  companion  "  Aftermath," 
are  gems  of  nature  description,  mingling  her  laws 
and  decrees  with  the  pathetic  lives  of  his  char- 
acters. The  whole  theme  abounds  with  the  ex- 
uberant, plenteous  moods  of  nature  described  with 
heartfelt  sympathy  and  classic  taste;  the  old 
bachelor  and  the  noble  woman,  his  neighbor,  have 
their  destinies,  their  courtship  and  marriage,  their 
loves  and  sorrows,  interwoven  with  the  identical 
tragedies  of  nature's  humbler  creatures  —  the 

104 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

Cardinal  and  his  kind.  Even  the  sorrows  of 
this  brilliant  songster  amid  the  cedars  sound  the 
note  of  disaster  soon  to  conclude  the  tale. 

The  naive  simplicity  of  the  courtship  of  Adam 
Moss,  "  such  a  green,  cool,  soft  name,"  and 
Georgianna  had  its  beginnings  in  the  garden,  its 
continuance  across  the  hedge,  its  culmination  in 
the  little  natural  paradise  that  the  lover  had  cared 
for  and  tended.  At  the  sad  ending  of  this  lov- 
ing couple's  union,  the  whole  choir  of  nature 
seemed  to  send  up  a  hymn  of  everlasting  grief 
after  the  passage  of  this  pure-souled  woman;  the 
Cardinal  lost  his  mate;  Adam  Moss  lost  his;  and 
with  his  little  son  walked  again  amid  the  "  chaliced 
flowers  "  of  his  garden  and  fast  budding  orchard 
for  consolation  —  the  tragedy  of  nature  healed 
by  herself. 

The  follower  of  Thoreau  and  Audubon,  his  fel- 
low of  the  Kentucky  woods,  he  has  stepped  beyond 
their  realm  and  brought  a  multitude  of  the  great 
Mother's  gifts  to  dwell  around  the  abodes  of  the 
men  and  women  whose  lives  he  fondly  unfolds. 
Within  the  covers  of  this  volume  there  is  tender- 

105 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

ness,  there  is  simplicity,  there  is  the  ineffaceable 
sweetness  of  the  poem  in  the  printed  form  of 
prose,  yet  unshorn  of  the  subtle  beauties  and  har- 
monies of  the  setting.  It  remains  a  simple, 
pathetic  story  reaching  straight  to  the  hearts  of 
men. 

In  the  early  days  of  the  State's  history,  Lex- 
ington was  settled  by  that  sturdy  race  of  pioneers 
who  had  pushed  over  the  Blue  Ridge,  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  and  the  Cumberland  passes  into  the  fresh 
fields  of  the  new  land.  The  vitality  and  vigor  of 
this  community,  the  customs  and  manners  of  the 
pioneer  life,  the  struggle  of  determined  men  and 
women  to  establish  an  outpost  of  civilization,  the 
rise  of  the  church,  all  are  embodied  in  the  short 
story  "  Flute  and  Violin";  but  there  is  contained 
something  more  intimate  and  more  personal  than 
the  historical  references  and  setting.  It  is  the  life 
of  the  Reverend  James  Moore,  and  that  of  his 
charge,  David.  A  grasp  of  no  usual  power  is 
betrayed  in  Mr.  Allen's  manner  of  delineating  the 
relationship  of  these  two;  the  minister  of  God  and 
the  fatherless  waif.  The  preacher,  lifting  up  his 

106 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

soul  to  his  Master  in  the  exhortation  to  his  back- 
woods brethren,  has  one  point  in  common  with  the 
poverty-stricken  urchin  —  that  point  is  music. 
The  cold,  keen  soul  of  the  pastor  is  elevated  above 
the  plane  of  logical  and  earthly  things  in  the  sweet 
melodies  of  the  flute;  the  lonely,  God-forsaken 
soul  of  the  crippled  boy  is  fluttered  in  ecstasy  at 
the  magic  notes  of  the  violin. 

There  is  one  incident,  full  of  pathos,  full  of 
the  divine  tragedy  of  the  past,  that  stamps  this 
story  as  classic.  It  is  the  straightforward  appeal 
to  all  that  man  calls  noble  and  sublime.  The 
penniless,  maimed  youngster  was  enabled  to  grat- 
ify his  intense  desire  to  see  the  wonderful  "  Wax 
Figures,"  which  had  just  arrived  in  the  back- 
woods town,  through  a  petty  theft;  he  entered 
timidly,  conscience-stricken,  and,  as  he  lifted  his 
eyes,  the  portrait  of  Christ  confronted  him  in  its 
silent,  appealing  majesty.  "  It  was  a  strange 
meeting.  The  large  rude  painting  possessed  no 
claim  to  art.  But  to  him  it  was  an  overwhelm- 
ing revelation,  for  he  had  never  seen  any  pictures, 
and  he  was  gifted  with  an  untutored  love  of  paint- 

107 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

ing.  Over  him,  therefore,  it  exercised  an  enthrall- 
ing influence,  and  it  was  as  though  he  stood  in  the 
visible  presence  of  One  whom  he  knew  the  par- 
son preached  of  and  his  mother  worshipped." 

The  place  of  action  shifts  in  the  next  of  his 
stories  to  that  time  in  the  early  thirties  when  the 
great  plague  visited  Kentucky.  Among  the  danc- 
ing and  singing  beauties,  in  the  ranks  of  the  up- 
right and  fallen,  among  the  statesmen  and  gen- 
erals, in  the  mansions  and  huts,  the  pestilence  came 
and  took  its  toll. 

How  ironical  are  the  movements  of  Fate! 
"  King  Solomon,"  the  central  figure  of  the  tale 
bearing  his  name,  has  stood  at  auction  before  the 
jeering,  laughing  crowd  in  the  public  square  and 
has  been  bought  for  thirteen  dollars  by  a  free 
negro  "  mammy  "  at  a  time  when  slavery  was  the 
most  potent  factor  in  the  life  of  the  State;  this 
great  hulk  of  a  man  has  stood  before  the  crowd  a 
wreck  of  moral  manhood,  besotted  and  full  of 
the  lowest  passions  of  a  human  being;  he  had 
fallen  to  such  a  depth  that  digging  a  ditch  was  too 
lofty  an  occupation. 

108 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

The  plague  came  with  its  deluge  of  disaster. 
The  moaning  of  some  dying  human  being,  the  rap 
of  hammer  on  the  coffins  at  the  lumber  yard,  the 
creak  of  the  death  cart,  were  the  only  sounds 
arising  from  the  stricken  city;  yet,  not  these  alone, 
there  was  one  more  —  the  soft  scrape  and  thud 
of  "  King  Solomon's  "  shovel  digging  the  graves. 
He,  alone,  had  remained  at  the  post.  "  King 
Solomon"  had  come  into  his  own;  moral  sub- 
limity had  arisen  from  moral  degeneracy.  The 
sot  and  outcast  was  regenerated  into  the  hero  and 
the  man. 

Mr.  Allen  has  drawn  a  striking  picture  of  an 
incident  on  the  return  of  the  population.  The 
court  room  was  filled;  "King  Solomon"  stood 
again  in  that  room  whence  he  had  been  sent  a 
little  while  before  to  be  sold  for  vagrancy.  "  The 
Judge  took  his  seat  and,  making  a  great  effort  to 
control  himself,  passed  his  own  eyes  slowly  over 
the  court-room.  All  at  once  he  caught  sight  of 
"  King  Solomon  "  sitting  against  the  wall  in  an 
obscure  corner;  before  any  one  could  know  what 
he  was  doing,  he  hurried  down  and  walked  up  to 

109 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

the  vagrant  and  grasped  his  hand.  He  tried  to 
speak,  but  could  not.  Old  King  Solomon  had 
buried  his  wife  and  daughter  —  buried  them  one 
clouded  midnight,  with  no  one  present  but  him- 
self. 

"  Then  the  oldest  member  of  the  bar  started 
up  and  followed  the  example ;  and  the  other  mem- 
bers, rising  by  a  common  impulse,  filed  slowly 
back  and  one  by  one  wrung  that  hard  and  power- 
ful hand." 

In  "  Two  Gentlemen  of  Kentucky  "  James  Lane 
Allen  has  struck  a  very  sympathetic  chord  in  South- 
ern natures,  and  in  those  of  the  world  at  large. 
The  results  of  war  are  always  sad;  the  passing  of 
a  brave  but  broken  man  who  fought  nobly  in  such 
a  war  is  sadder  still.  The  simplicity,  the  kindli- 
ness, the  bravery  of  a  broken  man,  the  passing 
onward  of  master  and  slave,  the  one  to  become  a 
man  made  still  nobler  by  his  responsibilities  for 
those  under  his  care ;  the  other  to  become  ennobled 
in  character  by  his  devoted  care  of  those  above 
him.  We  must  note  the  two  old  men,  the  one 
white,  bent,  noble  of  face  and  character;  the  other 

no 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

black,  equally  crooked,  acquiring  the  fine  traits 
of  his  master;  these  two  walking  feebly  arm  in 
arm  to  their  last  resting  place  —  the  end  of  the 
old  regime. 

Mr.  Allen's  work  is  not  all  sombre  and  pathetic; 
humorous  and  quaintly  shrewd  touches  abound. 
The  texts  to  the  number  of  seven  embroidered  on 
the  coat  tails  of  Peter's  preaching  garment  are 
described  with  humorous  appreciation  and  telling, 
ludicrous  effect. 

Amid  the  green  fields  of  the  promised  land,  a 
band  of  religious  exiles  founded  a  new  home  for 
the  establishment  of  their  order;  it  was  the  so- 
ciety of  the  Trappist  Monks.  The  order  was 
founded  some  nine  centuries  ago  by  De  Ranee  in 
the  gloomy  forests  of  Normandy;  so,  here,  these 
silent  men  pushed  into  the  wilderness  to  gain  the 
seclusion  that  their  souls  craved  for  meditation 
and  prayer.  They  found  it  in  this  virgin  land. 
Consequently,  to-day  there  is  located  in  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  sections  of  the  State  an  ancient 
abbey  surrounded  by  the  fields  of  the  brotherhood; 
about  the  grim  buildings  the  smiling  land  rolls  in 

in 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

sweeping  swells  until  it  meets  the  clear  blue  of  a 
Kentucky  sky. 

Mr.  Allen's  short-story,  "  The  White  Cowl," 
is  laid  within  the  grey  environs  of  the  old  abbey. 
The  strange  career  of  the  young  Kentucky  priest 
who  had  never  known  the  name  of  woman  or  seen 
her  image  since  early  childhood;  the  struggle  to 
conquer  the  forbidden  longing  —  the  beating  of 
the  spirit  of  youth  against  the  walls;  the  meeting 
of  the  woman  and  the  renunciation  of  the  clois- 
tered life;  the  parting  of  the  aged  abbot  and  his 
beloved  disciple  —  all  are  visualized  in  tragic 
array  before  the  eye. 

The  ill  fated  conclusion  of  the  tale  has  a  power 
which  grips  the  heart.  "  Father  Palmeon,"  the 
young  priest,  no  longer  young,  returns  from  the 
world,  his  wife  and  child  buried  in  the  same  grave; 
he  himself  a  broken,  dispirited  man,  scarcely  con- 
cerned with  the  vast  domain  without.  He  comes 
to  beg  readmittance  which  must,  by  rules  of  the 
order,  be  refused.  He  is  received  merely  as  a 
guest,  and,  within  a  short  time,  worn  by  the  rigors 
of  sorrow  and  penitence,  he  gives  up  his  lofty 

112 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

spirit,  passing  hence  upon  the  ashes  and  straw  al- 
lotted to  a  dying  brother.  Mr.  Allen  sums  up 
the  story  pithily,  "  Love  —  duty  —  the  world;  in 
these  three  words  lie  all  the  human,  all  the  divine, 
tragedy." 

The  setting  of  "  Sister  Dolorosa  "  is  also  laid 
in  an  old  nunnery  in  the  valley  of  Gethsemane. 
The  same  type  of  struggle  is  thrown  upon  the 
screen.  The  author  dresses  it  in  the  wonderful 
garb  of  which  his  mastery  proclaims  his  genius  — 
the  sad  scenes  of  the  love,  the  struggle,  the  sacri- 
fice of  a  lonely  woman.  Everywhere,  pervading 
the  atmosphere  of  his  stories  are  the  forces  of 
nature  at  work,  particularly  those  of  sex  relation- 
ship foreshadowing  his  future  efforts  in  evolution 
and  the  slow  creation  of  present  man. 

What  an  artist's  eye  for  color  James  Lane  Allen 
possesses !  His  description  of  Sister  Dolorosa, 
her  face  and  garments,  at  the  time  of  her  meeting 
Helm,  brings  the  vivid  pictures  before  the  eye, 
reveling  in  shade  and  tone,  with  all  the  intricate 
lighting  of  the  original.  "  A  gleaming  as  white 
lilies  against  the  raven  blackness  of  her  dress;  and 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

with  startling  fitness  of  posture,  the  longest  finger 
of  the  right  hand  pointed  like  a  marble  index 
towards  a  richly  embroidered  symbol  over  her  left 
breast  —  mournful  symbol  of  a  crimson  heart 
pierced  by  a  crimson  spear.  Whether  attracted 
by  the  lily-white  hands  or  by  the  red  symbol,  a 
butterfly,  which  had  been  flitting  hither  and  thither 
in  search  of  the  gay  roses  of  the  summer  gone, 
now  began  to  hover  nearer  and  nearer,  and  finally 
lighted  unseen  upon  the  glowing  spot.  Then,  as 
if  disappointed  not  to  find  it  the  bosom  of  the 
rose,  or  lacking  hope  and  strength  for  further 
quest  —  there  it  rested,  slowly  fanning  with  its 
white  wings  the  tortured  emblem  of  the  divine 
despair." 

Throughout  the  writer  reveals  the  forces  of  na- 
ture playing  upon  the  actions  of  men;  he  outlines 
with  consummate  skill  the  influence  of  natural 
laws. 

While  the  last  tale,  "  Posthumus  Fame,"  of  the 
book  containing  the  series  above  is  hardly  up  to 
the  standard  of  its  companions,  yet,  even  here, 
we  must  concede  that  delicate  mastery  of  word  and 

114 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

structure  whose  beauty  is  a  continual  source  of  de- 
light. Somewhat  similar  to  the  classic  forerunner 
of  similar  type  —  that  of  Hawthorne  —  it  is  a 
creation  of  singular  allegorical  force.  The  pag- 
eant of  those  who  seek  future  fame  and  remem- 
brance passes  in  sorrowful  procession  before  the 
young  sculptor :  —  the  unknown  poet,  the  broken 
soldier,  the  hungry  minister,  the  bereaved  mother, 
the  penitent,  painted  woman,  the  beauty.  Each 
in  turn  lays  bare  a  glaring  nakedness  of  soul,  the 
vain  hope  for  remembrance  by  posterity.  The 
mockery,  the  hollow  pleas  and  the  useless  attempts 
to  perpetuate  their  names  in  marble,  of  those  who 
have  failed  to  carve  them  upon  the  hearts  of  their 
fellows,  is  a  sermon  of  more  than  uncommon 
power. 

Coincident  with  these  short-stories  are  a  num- 
ber of  essays,  each  one  of  which  was  originally 
designed  to  accompany  a  tale  in  the  other  book. 
Because,  however,  of  pressing  work  the  author 
was  never  able  to  complete,  fully,  his  purpose. 
They  are  a  series  of  able,  clear  sighted  essays 
exhibiting  a  keen  knowledge  of  character  and  a 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

shrewd  penetration  into  Kentucky  life,  tempered 
by  a  fine  sense  of  humor  and  an  innate  sympathy. 
They  are  delightful  for  the  clarity,  the  lucidity  of 
the  views  of  town  and  rural  life  in  Kentucky  — 
the  peaceful,  not  the  bloody  impression  so  long 
unjustly  associated  with  the  State. 

The  "  Blue-Grass  Region  "  is  particularly  fine. 
He  says  in  part  —  "  grass  is  almost  Kentuckian," 
and  a  little  further  on  "  the  County  Court  Day  in 
Kentucky  "  is  full  of  the  ridiculous  and  the  hu- 
morous amid  the  gathering  of  the  country  folk. 
Throughout  the  whole  picture  the  subtle  apprecia- 
tion of  the  humanity  of  that  life,  the  delicacy  of 
insight,  and  the  gift  of  aptly  worded  speech,  mark 
it  a  book  of  genuine  worth.  Those  who  follow 
the  work  will  find  it  to  be  a  source  of  information 
as  to  the  life  and  manners  of  that  period,  and,  as 
such,  it  will  remain  a  treasured  record.  The 
County  Court  Day  is  fast  passing  into  memory. 

"The  Choir  Invisible  "  is  based  upon  a  previous 
story  from  the  pen  of  Mr.  Allen  entitled  "  John 
Gray,"  which,  in  the  subsequent  volume,  was  con- 
siderably enlarged  and  improved.  Once  more  the 

116 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

author  is  amid  the  earlier  scenes  of  his  work  — 
in  the  Colonial  settlement  of  Lexington  amid  the 
virgin  forests.  The  idea  of  the  whole  is  the 
gradual  evolution  of  a  strong  man's  soul  and  his 
hopeless  love  for  a  noble  woman  married  to  an- 
other; it  is  essentially  the  problem  novel,  yet  so 
shorn  of  the  repulsive  features  of  the  type  by  the 
artistry  of  its  handling  as  to  command  intense  in- 
terest and  admiration. 

The  key-note  of  the  entire  production  is  con- 
tained within  the  few  words  of  the  same  Reverend 
James  Moore  —  "  And  so  the  whole  past  sounds 
to  me;  it  is  the  music  of  the  world,  it  is  the  vast 
choir  of  the  ever-living  dead  " ;  and,  elsewhere 
it  is  stated,  "  he  too  has  long  since  joined  the  choir 
invisible  of  the  immortal  dead." 

In  this  book  James  Lane  Allen  exhibits  his  ex- 
ceptional familiarity  with  early  Kentucky  history; 
the  manners  and  problems  of  the  day,  Virginia 
Colonial  life  and  its  influence;  and  the  rise  of  his 
Alma  Mater,  Transylvania  University. 

The  productions  of  Mr.  Allen  are  constructed 
with  the  eye  of  a  scientist  dissecting,  investigating, 

117 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

illustrating,  the  results  of  powerful  phenomena. 
A  strong,  virile  man,  a  genius  is  such  a  phe- 
nomenon. So  in  his  vigorous  work,  "  The  Reign 
of  Law,"  the  writer  has  attempted  the  unfolding 
of  an  unusually  endowed  man,  born  of  common- 
place parents;  one  who  has  to  struggle  to  acquire 
his  lawful  and  rightful  heritage. 

It  is  the  time  of  the  rise  of  the  great  project  for 
building  a  University  of  Kentucky.  The  young 
country  lad  enters  the  Bible  College  by  dint  of 
two  years  stint  and  heartrending  sacrifice.  The 
vital  disillusionment;  the  return  of  the  prodigal, 
of  the  soul,  not  of  the  flesh;  the  sweet  womanli- 
ness of  Gabriella;  are  of  fundamental  worth,  not 
only  for  the  intrinsic  interest  of  the  story,  but  also 
as  a  psychological  study,  a  profound  analysis  of 
human  motives,  a  satire  of  happy  strokes  on  the 
dull,  rigid  religious  intolerance  of  the  hidebound 
churches. 

Aside  from  these  notable  features  of  his  effort, 
the  author  has  interwoven  ideals  of  exceptional 
merit,  furnishing  illuminating  side-lights.  While 
speaking  of  the  struggle  to  erect  and  build  up  a 

118 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

great  University,  he  says  in  part  —  "  For  such  an 
institution  must  in  time  have  taught  what  all  its 
courthouses  and  all  its  pulpits  —  laws  human  and 
divine  —  have  not  been  able  to  teach ;  it  must 
have  taught  the  whole  commonwealth  to  cease 
murdering.  Standing  there  in  the  heart  of  the 
people's  land,  it  must  have  grown  to  stand  in  the 
heart  of  their  affections;  and  so  standing,  stand 
for  peace.  True  learning  always  stands  for 
peace.  Letters  always  stand  for  peace.  And  it 
is  the  scholar  of  the  world  who  has  ever  come  into 
it  as  Christ  came;  to  teach  that  human  life  is 
worth  saving  and  must  be  saved." 

If  the  book  possessed  no  other  merit  than  that 
of  the  first  chapter,  an  essay  devoted  to  an  out- 
line of  the  methods  of  growing  hemp,  it  would 
maintain  an  enviable  position  in  the  fields  of  South- 
ern letters.  The  broad  knowledge  of  the  cultiva- 
tion of  this  important  commodity,  and  the  telling 
accuracy  with  which  the  method  of  its  production 
and  its  social  value  is  sketched,  mark  the  author 
a  man  of  versatility  as  well  as  high  scholarly  at- 
tainments. 

119 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

The  elemental  passions  of  nature  are  always 
interesting;  the  frank  confession  of  them  borders 
dangerously  near  the  repulsive.  "  Summer  in 
Arcady  "  deals  with  these  fundamental  forces  of 
animal  nature  —  the  favorite  theme  with  Mr. 
Allen  is  sex  and  its  relationships.  If  artistry  can 
cover  and  hide  beneath  its  fold  the  bare,  repulsive 
features  of  the  ideas  involved,  if  style  can  dress 
the  nakedness  of  reality  in  a  garb  sufficient  to 
soothe  the  sensitiveness  of  critics,  then  well  and 
good.  Like  Tolstoi's  "  Resurrection,"  only  in 
somewhat  similar  measure,  this  little  idyl  of  the 
Kentucky  countryside  treats  of  passion  growing 
into  the  sublime  love  —  self  sacrifice;  the  growth 
of  sensuous  pleasure  into  the  realm  of  soul  delight. 
Throughout  the  entire  sketch  there  is  the  predomi- 
nating note  of  the  inexorable  lawrs  of  nature.  It 
is  nature  in  all  of  her  moods  abounding  as  the 
machinery  and  decorations  of  the  story;  the  softly 
lighted  Kentucky  woods  are  as  prolific  as  the 
riotous  actions  of  youth. 

Humorous,  half  sarcastic  touches  frequently  oc- 
cur like  the  following:  "Has  it  ever  been  re- 

120 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

marked  that  when  a  scandal  like  this  occurs  in  a 
country  neighborhood,  somebody  soon  afterwards 
gives  a  dinner  to  several  ladies?  " 

As  a  continuance  of  this  same  bold  note,  the 
latest  novel  of  James  Lane  Allen,  the  "  Mettle  of 
the  Pasture,"  deals  with  the  imprudent  follies  of 
youth  and  the  resultant  tragedies.  It  is  the  fa- 
vorite saying  of  the  writer  that  close  communion 
with  Mother  Earth  has  given  the  people  of  the 
Kentucky  countryside  the  vitality  and  hardihood 
of  blue-grass  and  limestone  lands.  Within  this 
volume  he  delineates  the  noble  characteristics  of 
Kentucky  womanhood  in  all  the  purity  and  faith 
of  Southern  blood;  he  reveals  with  brilliancy  the 
meaning  of  human  spite;  the  powers  of  constant 
friendship,  but,  above  all  and  foremost,  he  is  pri- 
marily the  evolutionist,  the  scientist,  the  natural- 
ist. .  The  character  of  Rowan  is  the  result  of  two 
conflicting  types  of  humanity:  on  the  one  hand 
are  ranged  the  qualities  of  the  gay,  pleasure  lov- 
ing sportsman,  on  the  other  are  those  of  the 
theologian,  the  scholar,  the  jurist,  the  supporter 
of  moral  and  statute  laws.  The  boy  is  made  to 

121 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

stand  before  the  portraits  of  his  forefathers  and 
recall  the  causes  of  his  conflicting  nature  as  he 
recounts  the  pathetic  character  of  his  downfall; 
the  scene  is  impressive,  but  considerably  marred 
by  the  too  evident  creaking  of  plot  machinery. 
Within  it  all,  there  are  passages  of  humor  and 
sarcasm  —  his  apt  remarks  concerning  the  legal 
profession  of  the  old  town. 

Mr.  Allen  is  at  once  the  product  and  the  apostle 
of  evolution.  He  has  evolved  himself  from  the 
provincial  position  that  was  the  customary  birth- 
place, and,  sad  to  state,  the  resting  place,  of  many 
of  his  compeers.  He  has  risen  above  the  plane 
of  sectional  narrowness :  the  themes  that  have  re- 
ceived treatment  from  his  pen  possess  the  signifi- 
cance of  world  literature.  The  method  of  pre- 
sentation he  uses  has  something  of  an  air  of  dig- 
nity, a  profound  consciousness  of  artistic  power, 
that  sits  well  upon  the  comprehensive  character  of 
his  studies. 

Courage  is  the  true  expression  of  his  attack 
upon  such  difficult  citadels.  Versatility  is  his 
praise  and  due.  It  is  from  a  sense  of  justice  that 

122 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

we  concede  him  this  reward;  the  bold  venture  into 
the  novel,  to  himself,  sphere  of  nature  study,  of 
esthetic  principle,  and  the  correspondingly  success- 
ful manner  with  which  he  acquitted  himself  give 
ample  grounds  for  the  decision. 

A  romantic  background  was  at  hand.  Like  his 
fellows  of  this  school  of  social  historians,  he  en- 
joys the  distinguishing  mark  of  intense  interest  in 
his  fellows.  The  life  of  his  people  was  to  him 
one  stupendous  kaleidoscopic  drama.  Moliere's 
"  Le  Bourgeois  Gentilhomme "  suggests  the 
reality,  the  attentive  faculty  to  minutiae,  that  char- 
acterizes Allen  and  the  distinguished  French  dra- 
matist. There  is  something  of  the  same  quality 
of  tragic  humor  in  the  man  who  did  not  know 
that  he  had  been  using  prose  all  his  life  and  the 
Rev.  James  Moore  who  did  not  seem  to  know 
that  he  had  been  a  man  all  his  life  —  until  the 
widow  kissed  him.  Rare  unconsciousness  of  self 
as  exhibited  in  these  sagacious  characters  demands 
followers  on  both  sides  of  the  sea. 

Allen  has  a  poetic  faculty.  Wordsworth  and 
Keats  and  Shelley  must  admit  him  to  their  midst 

123 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

because  of  his  delightful  appreciation  of  the  won- 
ders in  field  and  vale.  The  eternal  sadness  of 
these  glorious  wonders  of  the  Creator  sanctioned 
and  controlled  by  the  laws  of  evolution  and  se- 
lection, affect  him  deeply.  As  in  Shelley's  "  To 
a  Skylark  "  — 

"  Our  sincerest  laughter 

With  some  pain  is  fraught; 
Our  sweetest  songs  are  those 
That  tell  of  saddest  thought." 

So  in  his  stories  he  never  breaks  the  shackles, 
never  forgets  the  eternal  order  of  sorrow  and 
suffering  in  his  poet's  world  of  beauty.  There 
is  an  ever-present  strain  of  melancholy. 

For  relief  from  the  pessimism  of  this  view, 
he  indulges  in  philosophy  and  theology.  Charity 
and  love  are  his  creed;  he  must  treat  his  villains 
even  with  a  touch  of  regretful  sympathy.  Like 
Shakespeare,  he  could  not  bring  himself  to  handle 
harshly  those  that  erred;  they  were  villains 
enough  in  character  without  the  addition  of  an 
author's  vindictive  spirit. 

124 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

On  the  one  side  he  must  have  lived  with  Dar- 
win, Spencer,  Huxley,  and  Tyndall;  on  the  other 
he  must  have  associated  with  Balzac  and  De  Mus- 
set  with  a  dash  of  De  Maupassant.  From  the 
romantic  and  realistic  schools,  and  from  the  cold 
philosophies  of  trained  scientists,  he  has  drawn 
material  of  inestimable  value  to  himself.  More 
commendable  than  this,  he  has  not  inclined  vio- 
lently toward  either  one  group  or  the  other.  He 
has  used  a  romantic  Southern  background  and 
dealt  in  cosmopolitan  modes  of  thought.  He  has 
achieved  a  double  service.  It  is  the  South  in 
truthful  colors;  and  it  is  a  presentation  without 
the  taint  of  objectionable  sectionalism. 

Mr.  Allen  has  the  habit  of  moralizing.  That 
is  a  natural  attribute  of  one  who  has  reveled  in 
ethical  problems.  The  hypothesis  of  heredity, 
the  dogmas  of  theology,  and  the  theories  of  evolu- 
tion are  all  in  "  The  Reign  of  Law."  It  is  a 
great  contest  of  circumstances  and  environment 
versus  nature.  Unlike  Dr.  Faustus  the  hero 
meets  a  woman  instead  of  a  Mephistopheles,  and 
gains  thereby  an  extension  perpetual  of  spiritual 

125 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

life  beyond  the   avaricious  dreams  of  him  who 
cried  in  Christopher  Marlowe's  tragic  lines: 

"  let  this  hour  be  but 
A  year,  a  month,  a  week,  a  natural  day, 
That  Faustus  may  repent  and  save  his  soul !  " 

When  in  his  moralizing  mood,  Mr.  Allen  has  a 
fashion  of  taking  his  reader  into  his  confidence. 
So  many  secrets  are  thrust  upon  his  unsuspecting 
companion  that  he  is  wont  to  believe  that  Thack- 
eray with  his  "  Vanity  Fair  "  and  "  Pendennis  " 
have  returned  to  claim  their  own.  There  is  the 
same  grasping  of  opportunities  of  making  a  sly 
pass  at  the  follies  of  his  characters  and  acquaint- 
ances. 

The  evolution  of  James  Lane  Allen  can  be  re- 
solved into  four  interesting  groups  of  his  works. 
The  first  of  these  divisions  is  "  A  Flute  and 
Violin  "  and  "  The  Blue-Grass  Region  of  Ken- 
tucky," along  with  others  treating  distinctively  of 
Kentucky  life.  Then  the  moods  of  nature  re- 
ceive attention  in  "  A  Kentucky  Cardinal  "  and 
"  Aftermath."  Evolution  and  the  moulding 

126 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

power  of  circumstance  next  gain  a  hearing  in  *'  A 
Summer  in  Arcady "  and  in  *  The  Reign  of 
Law,"  together  with  "  The  Mettle  of  the  Pas- 
ture." Last  of  all  comes  the  historical  and  prob- 
lem novel  in  combination  represented  by  "  The 
Choir  Invisible." 

The  whole  tenor  of  the  works  of  James  Lane 
Allen  can  be  attributed  as  the  result  of  his  ca- 
reer and  positions  held  in  life.  He  was  born  near 
Lexington  on  December  2ist,  in  the  year  1849, 
at  a  period  which  allowed  him  to  attain  an  age 
sufficient  to  appreciate  the  multitudinous  horrors 
of  civil  strife  and  feel  keenly  the  results  of  dis- 
union. His  people  were  of  English  and  Scotch- 
Irish  descent  from  the  State  of  Virginia  and 
Pennsylvania.  His  boyhood  and  early  life  was 
spent  amid  hardships  and  cramping  circumstances; 
he  attended  the  Transylvania  University  at  the 
time  of  its  reopening  just  after  the  War,  where 
he  finally  obtained  a  Master  of  Arts  degree  with, 
we  may  imagine,  considerable  sacrifice;  there- 
after he  taught,  became  a  professor  of  ancient 
languages  in  a  small  college  founded  by  the 

127 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

"  Christian  Church,"  with  the  intention  of  enter- 
ing Johns  Hopkins  University  to  obtain  a  degree 
of  Doctor  of  Philosophy.  The  press  of  the  call 
of  literature,  however,  was  too  powerful,  so  that 
he  gave  up  the  idea  of  going  further  in  the  pro- 
fessional field  of  teaching,  and  devoted  himself  to 
literature.  He  is  a  man  of  broad,  Saxon  frame, 
surmounted  by  a  generous,  noble  head  with  a  fine 
face  and  graced  with  courteous  manners;  tall  and 
stately,  he  is  a  typical  specimen  of  the  "  old 
school  "  of  Southern  gentlemen. 

Descended  from  a  race  whose  foremost  prob- 
lems were  those  in  which  nature  was  vitally  promi- 
nent, it  was  but  natural  that  the  love  of  his  fore- 
fathers should  make  a  notable  impression  upon 
his  character  and  writings.  Mr.  Allen  has  con- 
sistently held  his  stories  and  essays  to  a  Kentucky 
background,  yet  no  less  sweeping  have  the  books 
become  as  efforts  of  national,  international,  uni- 
versal appeal.  The  words  from  his  pen  are  read 
abroad  as  at  home.  An  evolutionist  of  vigorous 
views,  a  naturalist  of  comprehensive  sympathy,  a 
scientist  of  accurate  vision,  he  has  combined  the 

128 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

trio  into  an  intricate  composition  of  classic  value. 
His  works  are  in  part  sweet  and  tender;  in  parts 
cold  and  keenly  analytical;  in  places  the  fruit  of 
intuitive  genius;  in  whole  sections  and  divisions, 
in  the  books  themselves,  there  enters  the  pervad- 
ing, guiding  spirit  of  a  master  mind. 

Within  the  covers  of  a  single  volume  he  at- 
tains the  sublime  pinnacle  of  emotion  in  the  tragic 
fates  of  humanity,  presents  the  ridiculous  and 
ludicrous  phases  of  contemporary  existence; 
shrewdly  satirizes  the  foibles  and  maskings  of 
those  men  who  make  up  his  friends  and  com- 
panions. He  touches  all  sides. 

Page,  Cable,  Harris,  Craddock,  Russell  all  are 
essentially  masters  of  dialect.  Allen  of  this 
Southern  school  neglects  it  and  boldly  tells  the 
simple  tale  of  a  frank  and  manly  people.  As  a 
man  who  holds  up  the  proverbial  mirror  of  life 
as  it  is,  there  is  a  strong  flavor  of  Dickens,  as  a 
lover  of  nature's  moods  he  is  the  prose  com- 
panion of  his  Southern  fellow  artist  —  Madison 
Cawein.  The  South  should  be  justly  proud  of 
these,  her  sons,  for  as  Doctor  Johnson  pithily 

129 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

remarks,  "  the  chief  glory  of  every  people  arises 
from  its  authors." 

When  James  Lane  Allen  is  measured  for  his 
never  failing  love  of  mankind,  for  his  sincerity 
and  humanity,  for  his  noble  delineations  of  a 
noble  race,  his  touching  revelations  of  unknown 
phases  of  Kentucky  life  and  manners,  the  South 
and  posterity  in  general  will  hold  him  in  treasured 
memory —  for  he  has  become  a  classic. 


130 


JOEL   CHANDLER  HARRIS 


JOEL   CHANDLER  HARRIS 

"  But  Jesus  said,  Suffer  the  little  children,  and 
forbid  them  not  to  come  unto  me:  for  of  such  is 
the  kingdom  of  heaven." 

WHEN  Jesus  of  Nazareth  held  out  his 
arms  in  invitation  to  the  little  chil- 
dren his  act  was  an  appeal  to  the 
whole  realm  of  humanity.     It  was 
an    appeal    to    that    supreme    characteristic    of 
the  heart,  the  innocence  of  childhood.     Thus  in 
calling  to  the   children   and  offering  protection, 
it    was    not    only    those    particular    little    ones 
who    were    blessed,    but    an    example    was    also 
presented    to    the    whole    of    mankind;    an    ex- 
ample to  stir  the  child  nature  of  mankind,  which 
must  ever  live  in  the  hearts  of  all,  young  and  old 
alike.     The  love  of  children  and  the  power  to 
appeal  to  that  purity  of  outlook,  which  has  al- 
ways distinguished  the  very  young,  has  ever  been 

133 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

the  mark  of  a  heart  full  of  human  sympathy  and 
of  spontaneous  kindness. 

Out  of  the  South  came  one  young  man  with 
the  gift  of  this  understanding.  To  him  the  hu- 
man heart  was  a  legend  for  his  reading;  he 
profited  much  and  well  by  his  study  of  it. 
Throughout,  the  life  of  Joel  Chandler  Harris, 
the  possessor  of  this  insight  into  the  fine-spun 
senses  of  the  soul,  it  was  a  veritable  mission  of 
his  to  transmit  his  pleasure  in  the  simple  and 
wholesome  things  of  life  in  such  form  that  thou- 
sands might  enjoy  it  with  himself.  It  was  a  noble 
mission,  though  a  task  fraught  with  long  labor 
and  continued  effort.  Yet  to  him  reward  was 
deemed  generous  were  he  but  able  to  inspire  a 
finer  ideal  of  life  or  to  impart  a  real  source  of 
enjoyment  to  the  lives  of  others  through  the  vir- 
tues of  his  simple  narratives. 

As  Mr.  Harris  spoke  of  this  reward  himself, 
when  dedicating  his  first  book  after  fifteen  years 
of  popularity,  to  the  illustrator  of  the  last  edition, 
Arthur  Burdette  Frost: 


134 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

i 

"  I  seem  to  see  before  me  the  smiling  faces  of 
thousands  of  children  —  some  young  and  fresh,  and 
some  wearing  the  friendly  marks  of  age,  but  all  chil- 
dren at  heart  —  and  not  an  unfriendly  face  among 
them.  ...  I  seem  to  hear  a  voice  lifted  above 
the  rest,  saying:  *  You  have  made  some  of  us 
happy.'  " 

He  realized  that  in  itself  the  happiness  and 
peace  occasioned  by  his  stories  could  be,  at  best, 
but  transitory  and  illusive  in  its  concrete,  prac- 
tical effect  on  his  readers'  lives.  He  sensed  the 
truth,  nevertheless,  when  he  realized  that  the  sum 
total  of  this  power  must  culminate  in  a  multitude 
of  invisible  forces  acting  for  the  intrinsic  benefit 
of  those  who  had  followed  his  books. 

This  appreciation  of  his  power  to  lighten  the 
lives  of  his  countless  readers  was  sufficient. 
Within  this  same  dedication  the  pith  of  his 
philosophy  is  breathed  in  the  words:  "Insub- 
stantial though  it  may  be,  I  would  not  at  this 
hour  exchange  it  for  all  the  fame  won  by  my 
mightier  brethren  of  the  pen."  Akin  to  the 
peace  of  God  must  have  come  the  satisfaction  of 

135 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

having  taken  the  child  nature  of  your  people  into 
the  regions  of  ideals  where  many  found  much 
worthy  of  seeking. 

This  lesson  of  good  will  to  men  was  learned  on 
a  Georgia  plantation  in  Putnam  County.  Harris 
was  born  there  in  1848.  It  was  a  pleasant  place 
to  be  born;  in  that  land  the  people  were  of  a 
kindly,  sympathetic  race  that  made  the  South  of 
those  years  something  beyond  our  understanding. 
The  life  was  an  isolated  one;  those  gathered  to- 
gether there  were  intimate,  intimate  with  one  an- 
other and  with  the  nature  of  their  environment. 

Young  Harris  was  nurtured  within  the  influ- 
ence of  this  atmosphere.  Through  his  negro 
interpreters  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms 
became  a  very  human  dominion.  Their  quaint 
philosophy,  their  gentleness  of  demeanor  and  the 
superstitions  of  the  older  negroes  of  the  planta- 
tion became  his  without  the  asking,  assimilated 
in  that  easy  manner  of  an  impressionable  mind. 

Educational  facilities,  though  efficient  in  quality, 
were  meager  in  number  and  widely  scattered. 
Outside  of  the  plantation  library  and  the  oc- 

136 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

casional  tutor,  opportunities  were  thus  rendered 
scarce  indeed  for  any  methodical  scheme  of  edu- 
cation. Joel  Chandler  Harris  managed  to  at- 
tend, however,  before  his  twelfth  birthday  some 
few  sessions  of  the  Academy  at  Eatonton.  No 
matter  how  small,  it  seems,  a  boys1  school  at  that 
time,  it  must  be  called  an  Academy;  a  pleasing, 
yet  harmless  affectation. 

The  great  events  in  the  lives  o'f  those  who 
lived  in  1860  entered  into  his  life  history.  As 
to  what  it  meant,  there  has  been  an  attempt  to 
explain;  a  helpless  silence  is  a  small  appreciation 
of  the  magnitude  of  the  war's  influence.  About 
that  period  an  advertisement  appeared  in  The 
Countryman  for  a  boy  desirous  of  learning  the 
printer's  trade.  With  the  spirit  of  a  Benjamin 
Franklin,  Harris  accepted.  The  Countryman 
was  edited  by  an  accomplished  gentleman,  one 
Col.  Turner,  whose  publication  enjoyed  the  unique 
distinction  of  being  the  only  one  of  its  kind  issued 
upon  a  plantation.  After  a  short  period  Harris 
began  his  initial  contributions  to  the  newspaper; 
the  little  items  under  the  name  of  The  Country- 

137 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

man's  Devil  indicated  the  beginning  of  his  long 
and  brilliant  journalistic  career.  On  The  Planta- 
tion is,  indeed,  the  intimate  recollections  of  his 
personal  experiences  during  that  time,  tempered 
somewhat  by  the  glamour  of  intervening  years. 

Marked  by  a  ceaseless  eagerness  to  advance 
himself,  he  soon  was  given  access  to  the  extensive 
plantation  library  of  Col.  Turner.  Under  the 
benign  influence  of  the  old  masters  that  were 
wont  to  hold  forth  in  undisputed  possession  of  a 
Southerner's  book  shelves,  he  gained  an  educa- 
tion, acquired  a  perspective  of  what  true  learn- 
ing was,  and  saw  the  manner  of  great  men  in  its 
use. 

Within  this  period  and  before  it  and  after  it, 
an  unconscious  preparation  for  the  duties  of  his 
subsequent  work  was  silently  moulding  Joel  Chand- 
ler Harris.  From  one  occupation  to  another  he 
fast  became  a  competent  journalist.  He  served 
an  apprenticeship  as  secretary  to  William  Evelyn, 
editor  of  the  Crescent  Monthly,  which  had  been 
founded  in  New  Orleans  about  1866,  and  was 
devoted  to  literature,  art,  society,  and  science. 

138 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

It  was  a  comprehensive  field  for  a  young  man  to 
understand.  He  also  served  on  the  Macon  Daily 
Telegraph  and  the  Forsyth  Advertiser.  William 
Tappan  Thompson,  editor  of  the  Savannah  News, 
became  the  first  genuine  literary  patron  of  Harris. 
In  view  of  his  able  manner  of  conducting  himself 
in  his  journalistic  work,  he  was  invited  to  become 
a  member  of  the  editorial  staff  of  the  Atlanta 
Constitution.  It  devolved  upon  him  to  occupy 
the  place  of  S.  W.  Small,  who  had  been  filling 
a  portion  of  the  editorial  columns  of  his  paper 
with  a  series  of  dialect  sketches  entitled  stories  of 
"  Old  Si."  Mr.  Harris,  therefore,  was  induced 
to  write  several  editorials  himself  in  the  manner 
and  language  of  a  distinctive  negro  character. 
As  a  result  he  created  Uncle  Remus.  The  points, 
the  allusions,  and  the  morals  presented  in  these 
columns  were  placed  before  an  appreciative  and 
constantly  widening  audience  with  such  excellent 
effect  that  within  a  short  period  Joel  Chandler 
Harris  found  himself  in  the  possession  of  an  en- 
viable reputation. 

The  cause  of  this  unusual  popularity  is  not  dif- 

139 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

ficult  to  unearth.  The  finding  of  it  means  the 
revelation  of  those  basic  principles  upon  which 
Harris  founded  his  achievements.  The  first  of 
these  is  an  unfailing  humanity.  Such  a  compre- 
hension of  the  human  heart  and  human  nature 
as  Harris  possessed  would  in  all  likelihood  amaze, 
were  it  not  for  the  manner  of  its  exhibition. 

We  see  the  result  in  a  series  of  volumes  that 
have  proven  power.  We  do  not  appreciate  the 
delicate  analysis,  the  sensitiveness,  the  subtlety, 
with  which  this  master  mind  grasped  the  prob- 
lems of  mankind's  varied  life  and  manners  and 
dissected  them  to  a  nicety,  discarded  the  irrele- 
vant, and  as  a  dramatic  sequence  created  a  series 
of  stories  simple  enough  to  point  a  telling  moral 
to  a  child,  humorous  enough  to  demand  genuine 
laughter  from  middle  age,  philosophical  enough 
to  please  the  jaded  palate  of  those  of  advancing 
years.  Where  is  the  method?  There  is  a  pur- 
pose; you  can  hardly  call  it  system.  Summed  up 
within  the  scope  of  several  words,  this  explana- 
tion is  sufficient  —  a  generous  humanity  and  a 
universal  sympathy. 

140 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

% 
There   is  something  so  personal,   so   intimate 

about  these  stories  of  Uncle  Remus  and  the  wiles 
of  Billy  Biscuit  that  at  first  glance  the  tales  would 
be  judged  bits  of  autobiography  —  of  the  soul. 
No  man,  we  say,  could  write  these  apparently 
vivid  extracts  of  simplicity,  imbue  them  with  such 
personality,  with  such  magnetism,  and  leave  us  a 
moral  warning  withal,  and  not  then  be  guilty  of 
revealing  a  small  division  of  rns  inner-self.  This 
is  just  what  Harris  did  do.  There  is  no  con- 
juration and  mighty  magic;  but  only  simplicity; 
he  is  simplicity  himself  in  a  charming  ingenuous- 
ness of  manner.  The  reader  and  the  author  be- 
come at  once  intimate  friends;  and,  in  defining 
this  appealing  quality  of  Joel  Chandler  Harris' 
books,  you  sum  into  a  small  compass  much  of  his 
charm. 

The  philosophy  of  Mr.  Harris  as  enunciated 
by  Uncle  Remus  and  his  compeers  is  his  distinc- 
tive feature.  It  is  a  genial  philosophy,  and  it  is  a 
very  personal  philosophy.  The  tenets  inter- 
spersed throughout  the  stories,  however,  have 
nothing  of  the  savor  of  a  Beyle-Stendhal  egotism. 

141 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

They  are  composed  of  another  spirit,  rather, 
founded  upon  a  more  Christian  comprehensive- 
ness. 

There  is  enough  of  the  ego  to  make  it  the 
property  of  a  single  individual;  there  is  sufficient, 
indeed  the  major  portion  is  of  this  type  of  inti- 
mate communion  with  the  problems  of  society  to 
make  it  of  practical  value  to  him  who  may  choose 
to  listen.  Many  do  listen.  They  absorb  the 
moral  truths,  the  genial  observations,  the  fund 
of  quaint  satires  without  the  least  blush  of  a  con- 
scious assimilation.  The  stories  contain  it;  it  is 
theirs.  No  matter  what  the  age,  the  reader  di- 
gests his  moral  dose  with  a  feeling  of  pleasure. 
Harris'  philosophy  is  agreeable  medicine,  appar- 
ently, and  we  wonder  why  it  is  so.  It  is  perhaps 
because  of  its  good  nature.  Again,  it  may  be 
that  it  contains  a  legion  of  things  of  interest  to 
us,  if  we  be  youthful,  or  things  of  retrospection, 
if  we  have  passed  beyond  the  median  line.  When 
young,  it  seems  that  this  story  declares  some  dic- 
tum of  the  world.  When  in  that  state  called 
by  courtesy  "  not  young,"  it  seems  that  this  man 

142 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

% 

Harris  was  a  fellow  of  infinite  sympathy;  and 
such  attractive  truths  as  his  deserve  the  emula- 
tion and  commendation  of  experienced  men.  So 
it  is  the  current  travels. 

Now,  when  Brer  Possum  unjustly  ends  his 
career  in  the  fire  as  a  penalty  for  stealing  the 
butter,  which  act  he  was  not  guilty  of,  Uncle 
Remus  explains  with  a  sigh :  "  In  dis  worril  lots 
er  folks  is  gotter  suffer  for  udder  folks'  sins. 
Tribbalashun  seem  like  she's  awaitin' 
roun'  de  cornder  fer  ter  kotch  one  en  on'un  us, 
honey."  You  say  that  is  a  truism  of  experience; 
it  is.  Many,  nevertheless,  need  this  very  truism, 
and  many  happily,  may  it  be  said,  have  learned 
the  lesson  under  the  agreeable  tutelage  of  the  old 
darky. 

In  the  downfall  and  success  of  the  various 
members  of  the  animal  kingdom  are  read  lessons 
of  their  higher  brethren.  Appropriating  the  law 
of  reasoning  peculiar  to  Uncle  Remus,  the  ani- 
mals have  a  society  akin  to  that  of  humans,  with 
the  gift  of  actual  reason;  they  have  many  foibles, 
the  identical  failings.  As  a  result  of  this  original 

H3 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

order  of  creation,  the  shrewd  mind  animating  the 
pertinent  observations  of  Uncle  Remus  on  the 
maskings  of  his  familiars  sees  to  it  that  these 
suggestions  drift  on  to  their  legitimate  destina- 
tions among  the  kings  of  reason  —  animal  ethics 
are  lessons  in  human  ethics.  The  animals  "  Dey 
got  pride;  dey  don't  wanter  be  out  'n  de  fashion." 
Yet  once  again  OF  Craney-Crow  observes,  "  I 
done  fin'  out  in  my  time  dat  dey  don't  nothin' 
pay  like  perliteness,  speshually  if  she's  genuine." 
Again,  upon  a  further  analysis,  there  comes 
the  inquiry  what,  indeed,  makes  these  tales  so  uni- 
versally acceptable.  Philosophy  is  there  it  is 
true,  but  however  interesting  as  an  ethical  in- 
vestigation, interest  would  be  bound  to  flag. 
Characters  and  a  plot  are  further  shares  in  the 
success  of  the  productions.  There  is  something 
beyond  all  this  valuable  and  useful  series  of  at- 
tributes that  causes  the  multitudes  of  these  in- 
numerable characters,  truisms,  facts  and  fiction, 
to  cohere  into  one  structure  of  universal  attrac- 
tiveness. The  potent  faculty  that  is  thus  inherent 
is  the  humor  throughout  every  sketch.  A  humor 

144 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

kindly  in  its  bearing,  apt  in  its  application,  com- 
mingling satire,  gentle  ridicule,  and  the  legitimate 
failings  of  the  actors  in  a  pleasing  whole.  It  is 
American  humor;  the  basic,  fundamental  quali- 
ties are  the  breath  of  the  spirit  of  a  Mark  Twain. 

It  is  humor  based  upon  exaggeration,  upon 
ridiculous  comparison.  In  the  language  of  Brer 
Rabbit,  commenting  upon  the  high  prices  of  the 
times:  "  I'm  des  about  ez  fat  ez  de  mule  mon 
had,  which  he  hatter  tie  a  knot  in  his  tail  fer. 
ter  keep  'im  fum  slippin'  thro  de  collar."  Satire 
comes  in  this  manner:  "  He  better  be  dead  dan 
outer  de  fashion,"  as  Miss  Fox  sagely  remarked, 
upon  the  inadvertent  killing  of  her  husband,  at 
the  shrewd  advice  of  the  universal  wit,  villain, 
and  leader,  Brer  Rabbit.  The  description  by 
Uncle  Remus  of  the  young  lady  who  was  experi- 
encing her  first  proposal  of  marriage  was  unique : 
"  She  got  mad  an'  she  got  glad,  a'  den  she  had 
de  all-overs." 

The  hero  of  all  these  tales  of  the  animal  world 
is,  throughout,  the  engaging  figure  of  Brer  Rabbit. 
This  creature,  diminutive,  shy,  and  simple,  by 

145 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

some  transmutation  justified  by  negro  character, 
becomes  in  the  beast  tales  of  Uncle  Remus  a  per- 
sonage endowed  with  wit,  cunning  and  a  consum- 
mate duplicity  that  make  him  preeminently  the  king 
of  his  world.  It  is  a  bizarre  species  of  worship. 
That  the  negro  should  find  in  himself  the  ability 
to  appreciate  those  very  qualities  that  he  himself 
is  furthest  removed  from  is  singular  indeed. 
Brer  Rabbit  is  first  and  foremost  a  creature  of 
brains;  brawn  and  muscle  have  been  denied  him, 
yet  the  happy  sympathy  of  the  black  face  feels 
that  there  is  something  due  him.  In  this  appeal- 
ing state  of  helplessness  they  make  him  a  con- 
queror through  the  agencies  of  his  cunning  art, 
the  result  of  a  very  mischievous  nature.  Their 
purpose  was  not  to  exalt  trickery  or  demean  vir- 
tues, but  was  to  show  a  just  and  intuitive  love  of 
triumph  by  the  weak  and  good  natured.  We 
might  with  all  fairness  read  some  of  their  own 
history  into  the  narrative  of  their  familiar 
brethren  of  the  fields.  It  is  perhaps  the  tragic 
life  of  their  race  outcropping  here  in  the  work 
of  their  imagination. 

146 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

Uncle  Remus  is  very  careful  on  the  points  of 
Brer  Rabbit's  morals.  Behind  this  circumspec- 
tion, the  guiding  hand  of  Mr.  Harris  is  constantly 
evident.  Impressive  as  these  narratives  would  be 
to  many,  he  would  but  defeat  his  purpose  were 
he  to  fail  in  a  warning  of  the  rascality  in  some 
of  Brer  Rabbit's  methods.  It  is  a  warning,  how- 
ever, conveyed  by  a  subtle  method.  Sometimes 
by  a  hint  of  the  ancient  narrator,  again  through 
the  sheer  good  natured  daring  of  this  small  crea- 
ture the  point  is  made  impressive  by  the  triumph 
of  a  negative  quality  of  virtue. 

Through  these  multitudes  of  shrewd  schemes 
an  opportunity  is  being  afforded  constantly  to  dis- 
play the  humor  of  the  situation.  Uncle  Remus 
and  his  young  auditor  are  immensely  pleased 
when  Brer  Rabbit  turns  a  new  trick  on  Brer  Fox, 
or  when  Brer  Tarrapin  claims  the  honors  in  an 
encounter  of  strength  with  Brer  Bar. 

Nothing  is  quite  so  delightful  to  the  youthful 
in  mind  and  the  young  in  heart  as  the  old  uncle's 
mimicry  of  the  animal  calls  and  signals.  To  one 
whose  life  was  spent  on  a  plantation  it  will  mean 

H7 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

that  these  sounds  are  echoes  of  a  hallowed  past; 
yet  even  to  him  who  has  not  had  this  unique  ex- 
perience, there  is  enough  of  the  universal  feelings 
for  the  things  of  childhood  and  in  childhood,  to 
appreciate  keenly  the  subtle  reproductions  of 
Uncle  Remus'  imitations. 

The  relations  of  the  comedies  and  tragedies  of 
this  animal  world  have  many  values.  Aside  from 
the  didactic  purpose  that  is  usually  inherent  in 
each,  the  realm  of  several  allied  interests  is  in- 
vaded. To  the  anthropologist,  these  folk  tales 
carry  numerous  messages  of  worth  in  regard  to 
the  principles  of  that  science;  bits  of  interesting 
history  can  be  unearthed  from  this  mass  of  de- 
tail illuminating  many  historic  incidents  in  the 
domestic  life  of  the  American  negro's  progenitors. 
In  a  similar  relation,  the  psychologist  finds  a  whole 
storehouse  of  instructive  material  on  the  question 
of  social  psychology  or  disputed  points  in  genetic 
psychology,  and  numerous  miscellaneous  lights 
are  shed  upon  its  general  doctrines.  To  the 
linguist  and  the  philologist,  also,  these  beast  tales 
disclose  fitting  characters  to  be  displayed  amongst 

148 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

exhibits  of  other  nations  and  peoples  evolved  in 
the  early  literary  and  mythical  history  of  each. 
From  the  crude  predecessors  now  found  among 
the  inhabitants  of  northern  Africa  to  the  more  ac- 
complished versions  in  the  dialect  of  their  progeny 
in  Georgia  or  the  coast  plantations,  the  connec- 
tion is  one  fraught  with  varied  topics  of  consum- 
ing interest.  There  is  something  wistful,  some- 
thing half-tragic,  in  this  evidence  of  negro  char- 
acter; simplicity  and  good-natured  childliness 
are  here  evinced  constantly,  and  contain  a  mes- 
sage akin  to  the  "  writing  on  the  wall  "  to  those 
constructive  statesmen  in  whose  hands  the  future 
of  the  race  is  plastic. 

To  return  to  the  question  of  scientific  relation- 
ship, the  tales  have  so  many  points  in  common 
with  the  numerous  tales  of  ancient  peoples  that 
something  more  than  coincidence  seems  to  exist, 
It  is  a  startling  proof  of  the  universal  similitude 
of  all  mankind  in  the  progressive  march  of  their 
mental  life  as  it  is  evolved  from  the  mysterious 
regions  of  unrecorded  history  to  the  time  of  more 
elaborate  annals.  Mythologies,  fairy  tales,  beast 

149 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

tales,  fables,  each  have  their  respective  positions 
in  the  extensive  category  by  the  agency  of  which 
the  mental  growth  of  all  mankind  seems  to  have 
been  linked  into  one  comprehensive  scheme  of 
evolution.  South  America  sends  her  quota  of 
information,  the  several  histories  of  the  nations 
theirs,  the  American  Indians  theirs;  each  group 
possessing  these  tales  for  itself  apparently  created 
from  some  inner  consciousness.  The  early  strug- 
gles of  each  were  similar,  and  in  that  lies  much 
of  the  explanation;  yet  much  more  remains  that 
is  of  interest  to  the  scientist  accustomed  to  deal- 
ing in  hypotheses. 

As  a  nation  grows  toward  middle  age  the  long- 
ing for  the  land  of  its  youth  has  cast  its  charm. 
Within  the  homely  narratives  of  Mr.  Harris,  the 
country  of  desire  looms  upon  the  vision  in  an  at- 
tractive garb  of  fact  and  imagination.  This, 
perhaps,  in  addition  to  those  entertaining  qualities 
of  generosity  and  humor,  has  compelled  the  elder 
reader  to  pursue  the  stories  with  avidity.  Enjoy- 
ment of  all  nature's  wonders  is  possible  within 

150 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

your  doors.  Nature  study  is  rampant.  The 
spirit  of  the  nation  is  lending  itself  to  this  whole- 
some desire  for  a  return  to  the  soil,  and  in  so 
doing,  demands  that  much  of  the  literature  should 
treat  of  the  countryside.  Both  Ernest  Thomp- 
son Seton  and  Joel  Chandler  Harris  have  ably 
responded  to  the  call.  In  the  essence  of  each 
is  that  profound  love  of  the  wilds  and  their  in- 
habitants which  entitles  them  not  only  to  the  name 
of  author,  but  even  of  scientist  in  that  true  sense 
of  the  word.  They  have  taught  a  nation's  youth 
as  well  the  art  of  appreciating  natural  beauties 
as  the  proper  perspective  for  their  estimation. 
Childhood  is  made  a  constant  delight;  middle  age 
a  period  of  continued  amazement  at  the  ever  new 
revelations;  the  wisdom  of  old  age  is  sweetened 
by  a  satisfied  comprehension  of  the  powers  of 
the  creator.  In  this  same  vein  SEsop's  Fables 
and  La  Fontaine's  similar  stories  have  amused 
and  instructed.  In  Stop's  Fables  the  Hare  and 
Tortoise  have  their  counterparts  in  the  repertoire 
of  Uncle  Remus.  Recruiting  The  King's  Army 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

is  a  story  with  a  flavor  of  the  early  Roman  Le- 
gions, and  the  army  that  slew  each  other  upon 
the  Seven  Hills. 

^Esop  found  the  proper  mode  of  presenting  his 
story  was  by  the  means  of  a  pithy  and  aphoristic 
sketch.  The  fairy  tales  conveyed  their  morals 
by  rambling  narratives  of  impossibility.  Ernest 
Thompson  Seton  placed  his  story  before  his 
readers  in  the  tales  of  boyhood  or  in  the  rela- 
tions of  a  huntsman's  adventures.  The  first 
dealt  tersely  with  animals  imbued  with  human 
characteristics,  giving  a  strong  emphasis  to  the 
moral  side  of  the  situation;  the  second  was  con- 
cerned with  the  artistry  of  the  tale  with  a  moral 
point  conveyed  as  an  incident;  the  third  was  pure 
nature  study  viewing  animals  as  possessed  of 
many  human  characteristics.  In  some  particular 
each  one  failed  in  gaining  a  reality,  however  im- 
possible the  narrative  itself,  which  would  have 
made  the  moral  a  thing  of  permanence.  It  re- 
mained for  Joel  Chandler  Harris  to  combine  the 
various  features  of  his  predecessors,  from  the 
immortal  JEsop  to  the  present;  to  respond  to  a 

152 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

nation's  desire  for  stories  intimate  with  the  soil, 
and  to  transmute  the  whole  into  the  semblance 
of  reality  by  placing  the  scene  on  his  plantation 
birth-place  and  the  language  Jn  the  dialect  of  his 
dusky  tutors. 

Joel  Chandler  Harris  was  a  master,  indeed,  of 
negro  dialect.  And  in  asserting  such  a  broad 
generality  an  exception  must  be  noted  in  his  com- 
panion author,  Thomas  Nelson  Page.  Mr.  Page 
nevertheless  handles  a  different  phase  of  Southern 
life  with  a  diverse  manner  of  treatment.  Mr. 
Harris  selected  the  ideal  mode  of  depicting  the 
beast  tales  with  their  humble  philosophy  and 
pathetic  scheme  of  ethics.  The  dialect  of  Uncle 
Remus,  with  its  origin  in  the  negro  cabins  of  the 
plantation,  from  the  lips  of  one  of  whom  the 
phenomena  of  nature  had  come  to  take  the  place 
of  the  dogmas  and  tenets  of  religion,  was  the  per- 
fect instrument  for  the  delineation  of  such  appre- 
ciation of  the  animal  world  and  human  philosophy 
as  he  saw  fit  to  present.  In  no  annal,  in  no  his- 
tory, and  in  none  of  the  various  accounts  of  the 
life  of  the  South  has  a  more  faithful  series  of 

153 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

dialect  sketches  been  placed  before  the  reader. 
In  the  time  of  his  boyhood  Harris  acquired  with 
his  education  the  spirit  of  his  character  so  thor- 
oughly and  with  such  remarkable  feeling  that  he 
has  produced  as  a  result  the  most  sympathetic 
interpretation  of  negro  speech  that  Southern  or 
any  literature  possesses.  He  caught  the  subtle 
intonations  and  cadences  of  negro  speech  with  in- 
finite precision;  with  no  less  skill  he  has  made 
it  permanent  by  his  translation  of  it  to  the  printed 
page. 

The  use  of  negro  dialect  has  afforded  Joel 
Chandler  Harris  a  means  of  treating  negro  char- 
acter with  a  fullness  and  extension  that  no  other 
writer  of  the  South  has  attained.  In  Uncle 
Remus  we  see  the  whole  realm  of  negro  psy- 
chology unfolded  in  the  unconscious  fashion  of  the 
narrator.  Uncle  Remus  was  himself  a  type,  but 
of  a  stamp  whose  mold  was  broken  several  dec- 
ades ago.  There  will  be  no  more.  Thus  Har- 
ris, in  his  function  as  a  member  of  this  group; 
of  social  historians,  if  they  may  be  termed  thus, 
has  done  an  inestimable  service  in  preserving  for 

154 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

the  historian  and  antiquarian,  for  the  social 
philosopher  and  student  of  society,  this  now  pass- 
ing specimen  of  a  departed  life.  As  Matthew 
Arnold  said  of  Wordsworth's  poetic  efforts,  so 
in  like  measure  it  is  true  of  Joel  Chandler  Harris' 
dialect  work,  "  It  is  expression  of  the  highest 
and  most  truly  expressive  kind." 

But  Uncle  Remus  does  more  than  reveal  his 
own  character,  his  personal  observations  and 
criticisms.  He  is,  moreover,  the  instrument  of 
casting  into  violent  contrast  the  life  of  his  race 
in  the  new  regime  as  against  his  own  position  of 
being  a  "  white  folks  nigger."  In  Uncle  Remus, 
His  Songs  and  His  Sayings  the  old  man's  dis- 
course on  "  Race  Improvement  "  carries  a  mes- 
sage of  political  import.  "  You  slap  de  law  onter 
a  nigger  a  time  er  two,  an'  larn  'im  dat  he's  got 
fer  to  look  atter  his  own  rashuns,  an'  keep  out  'n 
udder  foke's  chick'n  coops,  an'  sorter  coax  'im  in- 
ter de  idee  dat  he's  got  ter  feed  'is  own  chilluns, 
an'  I  be  blessed  ef  you  ain't  got  'im  on  risin' 
groun'." 

Scattered  throughout  the  whole  series  of  stories 
155 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

in  Uncle  Remus  and  His  Friends;  Uncle  Remus, 
His  Songs  and  His  Sayings;  On  the  Plantation; 
Nights  With  Uncle  Remus;  Uncle  Remus;  New 
Stories  of  The  Old  Plantation;  there  are  many 
side  lights  on  negro  character  in  the  person  of  the 
narrator  and  his  interlocutors.  How  many  in- 
deed and  the  fullness  of  the  spectacle  it  is  hard 
to  realize. 

When  concerned  in  a  question  of  fact  and 
veracity  Uncle  Remus  evinces  himself  to  be  gifted 
with  the  soul  of  a  diplomat.  It  is  the  frequent 
question  of  the  Little  Boy  to  whom  these  stories 
are  told  whether  such  a  state  of  affairs  is  in  truth 
the  actual  case.  With  a  scornful  lift  of  the  eye 
and  a  curling  lip  the  old  negro  announces  a  dic- 
tum of  faith  worthy  of  a  larger  religious  belief 
than  that  found  in  a  myth;  "  En  de  tale  I  give 
you  like  hi't  wer'  gun  ter  me."  That  was  sup- 
posed to  settle  the  matter,  and  it  generally  did. 
Uncle  Remus  has  caught  the  spirit  of  America 
sufficiently  to  appreciate  the  value  of  bluff. 
Brother  Billy  Goat's  Dinner  illustrates  how  com- 
pletely that  attribute  has  charmed  him. 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

No  truer  tale  was  ever  published  under  the 
guise  of  fiction  than  the  story  of  Uncle  Remus' 
unconscous  heroism  in  his  Story  of  the  War,  in 
Uncle  Remus,  His  Songs  and  His  Sayings.  Full 
of  a  devoted  patriotism,  and  tragedy  and  pathos, 
it  stands  as  a  specimen  clear  and  distinct  of  those 
numerous  acts  of  fidelity  that  were  wont  to  hal- 
low the  relation  of  master  and  servant.  It  is 
here  in  a  concrete  example. 

Uncle  Remus  defines  his  tales  in  excellent  style; 
he  is  determined  not  to  be  accused  of  writing 
literature  as  literature.  His  definition  of  a  story 
with  a  plot  is  unique.  "  Well,  'tain't  ez  you  may 
say  one  er  deze  yer  rag'lar  up  en  down  tales, 
what  runs  cross  ways.  Dish  yer  tale  goes 
straight." 

Uncle  Remus  conveys  his  moral  lessons  in  the 
role  of  mentor  to  the  Little  Boy.  The  tale  hangs 
usually  upon  some  recent  fault  of  the  small  audi- 
tor. The  crime  is  never  so  great,  however,  that 
it  cannot  be  wiped  away  by  the  sight  of  sweet 
cakes  or  "  tater  pie  "  as  a  gift  to  the  old  man. 

The   theories   of   Darwin,    the   philosophy   of 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

Huxley  and  Spencer  are  demolished  by  the  sweep 
of  Uncle  Remus'  hand.  Before  such  unquestion- 
ing faith  no  theory  of  evolution  could  stand;  it  is 
settled,  absolutely  settled.  Why,  if  Brer  Rabbit 
once  had  his  long  and  luxuriant  bush  frozen  off 
in  a  midnight  escapade,  thereafter,  of  necessity, 
all  of  his  descendants  must  have  short  or  cotton 
tails.  Uncle  Remus  also  has  a  concise  way  of 
settling  the  vexed  question  of  selection.  He  sees 
to  it  that  Brer  Rabbit  obtains  Miss  Molly  Cotton 
Taily  and  not  some  other  errant  female  of  the 
animal  realm. 

No  truer  expression  of  the  negro  workman's 
policy  could  be  found  than  in  the  story  of  the 
old  man's  interview  with  a  member  of  the  younger 
generation  as  regards  the  boss:  "I  bin  up  dar 
waitin'  fer  der  boss  ter  come,  an'  now  he  done 
come,  I'm  a  gwine  down  here  when  he'll  hatter 
sen'  atter  me  when  he  want  me." 

Genuine  joy  may  not  be  a  very  material  thing 
to  strive  for  as  an  ideal,  but  when  the  object  is  to 
furnish  joy  gratis  to  hosts  of  others,  it  is  easily 
excusable.  This  was  the  ideal  of  Mr.  Harris. 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

How  well  he  fulfilled  the  role  he  set  for  himself 
grateful  legions  of  readers  will  testify.  His 
works  continually  afford  some  new  pleasure  be- 
cause of  their  surpassing  good  nature  —  the  ever- 
living  interest  of  those  several  stories  of  which 
each  is  endowed  with  a  perpetual  festiveness. 
Chief  of  these  factors  in  his  success  is  the  good 
humored  criticism  of  life,  and  the  pertinent  sug- 
gestions as  to  the  application  of  personal  quali- 
ties to  the  solution  of  a  happy  existence.  Every- 
where there  is  the  philosopher  and  the  interpreter 
of  the  human  heart.  For  instance,  "  Put  a  boy 
smellin'  distance  uv  a  piece  er  tater  custard,  an1 
it  seem  like  de  custard  will  fly  up  an'  hit  him  in 
de  mouf,  no  matter  how  much  he  try  ter  dodge." 
It  has  been  the  fortune  of  no  one  of  these 
social  historians  so  skillfully  to  explain  the  atti- 
tude of  the  South  towards  the  negro  population 
as  Harris  has  done.  It  was  a  weighty  work, 
both  politically  and  socially.  Contrary  to  the 
lurid  and  rabid  accounts  of  Southern  domestic 
life,  the  stories  of  Mr.  Harris  arise  as  a  fitting 
rebuke  to  those  melodramatic  falsehoods  with 

159 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

which  for  the  last  fifty  years  the  libraries  and 
stage  have  been  wont  to  be  regaled. 

You  may  have  been  able  to  resist  the  spell  of 
the  ancient  narrator,  but  the  charm  of  Mr.  Har- 
ris' plantation  melodies  will  captivate  your  unwill- 
ing spirit.  The  religious  hymns,  the  campmeet- 
ing  songs,  will  be  sure  to  arouse  a  lively  appre- 
ciation of  what  difficult  tasks  Harris  has  ac- 
complished in  preserving  these  melodious  recitals. 
Greatest  of  all  are  the  cornshucking  songs,  the 
melodies  of  the  plow  hands,  and  the  Christmas 
play  songs  ringing  with  a  vigor  and  audacity 
whose  enthusiasm  will  literally  sweep  you  away 
in  that  ecstatic  fashion  of  the  dusky  reciters  them- 
selves. The  most  scientific  accomplishment  of 
Harris  is  his  production  in  proper  form  of  the 
'  Transcriptions,"  or  songs  adopted  by  the  ne- 
groes from  the  whites  at  some  remote  time.  As 
Harris  says  himself,  "  I  regard  them  as  in  the 
highest  degree  characteristic." 

Many  of  the  narratives  have  a  poetic  quality. 
Even  in  their  form  there  is  something  suggestive 
of  the  ballads  in  the  early  history  of  England  and 

1 60 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

Scotland.  In  that  volume  entitled  Uncle  Remus, 
His  Songs  and  His  Sayings,  the  story  of  "  How 
Mr.  Rabbit  was  too  sharp  for  Mr.  Fox,"  there 
are  the  conventional  elements  of  refrain,  ques- 
tion, and  response  that  are  found  in  the  early 
ballads  of  the  Scottish  border,  as  for  instance, 
Lord  Randall,  and  even  in  those  later  poems  by 
accredited  authors  in  English  literature. 

Again,  the  proverbs  of  Uncle  Remus  are  unique. 
His  aptitude  at  analyzing  the  situation  is  re- 
markably fine.  Epigrammatic  and  aphoristic  to 
a  supreme  degree  as  they  should  be,  they  embody 
many  truths  of  value.  He  says,  "  Hit's  a  mighty 
deaf  nigger  dat  don  year  de  dinner-ho'n  " ;  or  a 
14  Nigger  wid  a  pocket-han'kcher  better  be  looked 
atter."  You  are  soon  convinced  that  Uncle 
Remus  is  something  of  a  cynic,  as  well  as  a  pes- 
simist, on  the  subject  of  the  second  generation  of 
his  race. 

Joel  Chandler  Harris  has  written  many  fairy 
tales  of  charm  and  value.  His  characters  of 
Billy  Biscuit  and  Susan  are  familiar  figures  to  all 
childhood.  Billy  Wondercoon  and  His  History 

161 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

Telling  Machine  is  a  novel  excuse  for  a  series  of 
interesting  fairy  tales.  A  moral  here  and  a 
imoral  there  with  a  piquant  touch  of  humor,  a 
dash  of  graceful  imagination,  and  you  have  an 
absorbing  combination. 

An  inquiry  into  the  significance  of  Mr.  Harris* 
position  would  be  logical.  Like  the  four  other 
members  of  this  school  of  social  historians  Har- 
ris has  held  before  himself  a  definite  mission. 
By  mission  a  fruitless  ideal  is  not  designated,  but 
a  purpose  vibrant  with  meaning.  However 
closely  analytical  the  literature  of  the  Northern 
states  may  be,  the  South  does  not  suffer  in  any 
particular  by  minute  comparison.  For  these  sev- 
eral authors  have  presented  life  in  their  own  sec- 
tion with  a  masterful  comprehension,  grasping 
alike  the  minutiae  and  the  panorama.  From  the 
elemental  qualities  of  a  primitive  people  to  the 
refined  sentiments  of  a  cultured  community,  there 
is  no  failure  to  depict  with  ability  each  and  every 
phase  of  that  particular  mode  of  existence.  In 
Harris'  books,  as  in  the  other  works  of  this 
school,  there  is  a  generous  untrammeled  imagina- 

162 


JOEL  CHANDLER  HARRIS 

tion,  the  confident  handling  of  difficult  situations, 
that  characterize  the  rise  of  a  new  literature  of 
a  New  South,  well  ordered  and  faithfully  bal- 
anced. 

This  group  of  writers  had  several  interesting 
forerunners.  Simms,  Longstreet,  and  Kennedy 
were  the  pioneers  in  ante-bellum  times.  Long- 
street  put  forth  a  series  of  entertaining  stories 
entitled  Georgia  Scenes.  Kennedy  wrote  Horse- 
Shoe  Robinson,  which  was  a  predecessor  of 
Charles  Egbert  Craddock's  novels.  Between 
Harris  and  Longstreet,  however,  came  Richard 
Malcom  Johnson.  Even  more  pronounced  than 
in  the  later  work  of  Harris  and  his  compeers, 
were  the  provinciality  of  these  early  authors,  yet 
the  former  have  arisen  from  this  slough  of  sec- 
tional mannerisms  and  have  affected  the  more 
worthy  provinciality  of  Whittier  and  Burns.  The 
superiority  of  these  men  lies  in  their  ability  to 
grasp  life  more  intimately  than  others  have  done 
and,  in  so  doing,  they  have  grasped  the  details 
of  existence  in  their  community  as  a  whole  more 
thoroughly.  As  Matthew  Arnold  says  of  Tol- 

163 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

stoi's  Anna  Karenina,  "  One  prefers,  I  think,  to 
have  the  novelist  dealing  with  life  which  he 
knows  from  having  lived  it,  rather  than  with  a 
life  he  knows  from  books  or  hearsay."  Harris 
and  his  fellow  authors  are  entitled  to  this  recom- 
mendation. 

This  is  Joel  Chandler  Harris'  position:  A 
man  who  had  the  gift  of  appreciating  the  beauti- 
ful as  it  came  in  his  life,  and  the  genius  to  preserve 
his  version  of  it  all  for  the  delight  of  others  — 
who  had  the  gracious  gift  of  elucidating  and  por- 
traying his  own  perfect  understanding  of  human 
nature.  The  performing  of  this  mission  had  its 
reward.  A  happy  nation  of  children,  and  those 
who  are  children  in  heart,  bear  a  smiling  and  de- 
lighted witness.  As  Harris  has  said  of  himself, 
his  reward  would  be  the  laughter  of  a  charmed 
audience  breathing,  "  You  have  made  some  of  us 
happy."  He  succeeded.  It  is  a  refrain  that  per- 
sists in  echoing  and  reechoing  whether  a  critic 
would  or  no. 


164 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

THOMAS   NELSON    PAGE 

In  Ole  Virginia,  1887. 

Two  Little  Confederates,  1888. 

On  New  Found  River,  1891. 

Eisket  and  Other  Stories,  1892. 

The  Old  South,  1891. 

Gordon  Keith,  1903. 

Red  Rock,  1898. 

John  Marvel,  Assistant,  1910. 

The  Burial  of  the  Guns,  1894. 

Under  the  Crust,  1909. 

Pastime  Stories,  1894. 

Among  the  Camps,  1892. 

Social  Life  in  Old  Virginia  Before  the  War,  1896. 

Befor'  de  War  (with  Armistead  Gordon),  1897. 

Two  Prisoners,  1897. 

The  Old  Gentleman  of  the  Black  Stock,  1896. 

Santa  Claus  Partner,  1899. 

The  Negro  —  The  Southerner's  Problem,  1904. 

Bred  in  the  Bone,  1905. 

Captured  Santa  Claus,  1902. 

167 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

The  Coast  of  Bohemia,  1906. 

The  Old  Dominion  —  Her  Making  and  Her  Manners, 

1908. 

Robert  E.  Lee,  The  Southerner,  1908. 
Tommy  Trot's  Visit  to  Santa  Claus,  1908. 


C.  E.  CRADDOCK   (MISS  MURFREE) 

The  Despot  of  Broomsedge  Cove,  1888. 

Where  the  Battle  Was  Fought,   1884. 

Down  the  Ravine. 

The  Prophet  of  the  Great  Smoky  Mountains,  1884. 

In  the  Clouds,  1886. 

The   Story  of  Keedon   Bluffs,    1887 

In   the   Stranger  People's  Country,    1891. 

His  Vanished  Star,  1894. 

Mystery  of  Witchface  Mountain,  1893. 

Jugglers. 

The  Champion. 

The  Young  Mountaineers. 

The  Fair  Mississippian. 

The  Frontiersmen. 

In  the  Tennessee  Mountains. 

A  Spectre  of  Power. 

168 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

GEO.  W.  CABLE 

"  Bylow  Hill." 

"  Old  Creole  Days." 

"  Grandissimes." 

"  Dr.  Sevier." 

"John  March,  Southerner." 

"  Strong  Hearts." 

"  The  Cavalier." 

"  Posson  Jone  and  Pere  Raphael." 

"  Bonaventure." 

"  New  Orleans  Before  the  Capture." 

"  The  Dance  in  Place  Congo." 

"  New  Orleans." 

"  The  Silent  South." 

"  The  Layman's  Hints." 

"  The  Busy  Man's  Bible." 

"  Strange  True  Stories  of  Louisiana." 

Edited  "  Creole  Slave  Songs  "  and  "  West  Indian  Slave 

Insurrection." 
Numerous  Magazine  articles. 

JAMES  LANE  ALLEN 

Flute  and  Violin,  and  Other  Kentucky  Tales,  1891. 

John  Gray,  1893. 

A  Kentucky  Cardinal,  1894. 

169 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

Aftermath,  1895. 

Summer  in  Arcady,  1896. 

The  Choir  Invisible,  1897. 

The  Reign  of  Law,  1900. 

The  Mettle  of  the  Pasture,  1903. 

The  Doctor's  Christmas  Gift,  1910. 

The  Bride  of  the  Mistletoe,  1909. 

JOEL    CHANDLER    HARRIS 

Balaam   and    His   Master.     Houghton,    Mifflin   &   Co., 

1891. 

Daddy  Jake,  The  Runaway.     Century  Co.,  1901. 

Nights  with   Uncle   Remus.     Houghton,    1904. 

Mingo  and  Other  Stories.     Houghton,  1887. 

On  the  Plantation.     Appleton,  1902. 

On  the  Wing  of   Occasions.     Doubleday,    1900. 

Uncle  Remus,   His  Songs  and  His  Sayings.     Appleton, 
1903. 

Uncle  Remus  and  His  Friends.     Houghton,   1900. 

Free  Joe  and  the  Rest  of  the  World.     Scribners,  1898. 

Little  Mr.  Thumble  Finger.     Houghton,  1894. 

Mr.  Rabbit  at  Home.     Houghton,  1895. 

Plantation  Pageants.     Houghton,   1899. 

Tales  of  the  Home  Folks  in  Peace  and  War.     Hough- 
ton,  1898. 

Aaron  in  the  Wildwood.     Houghton,  1897. 

170 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 

Story  of  Aaron.     Houghton,  1896. 

Chronicles  of  Aunt  Minervy  Ann.     Scribners,  1899. 

The  Making  of  a  Statesman.  McClure,  Phillips  Co., 
1902. 

Gabriel  Tolliver.     McClure,  Phillips  Co.,   1902. 

Georgia,  from  the  Invasion  of  De  Soto  to  Recent  Times. 
Appleton,  1896. 

Little  Union  Scout.     McClure,  Phillips  Co.,   1904. 

Tar  Baby  and  Other  Rimes  of  Uncle  Remus.  Appleton, 
1964. 

Told  by  Uncle  Remus;  New  Stories  of  the  Old  Plan- 
tation. McClure,  Phillips  Co.,  1903. 

Billy  Wondercoon  and  the  History  Telling  Machine. 
McClure,  Phillips  Co.,  1903. 

BOOKS  ON  SOUTHERN  LITERATURE 

American  Authors —  Mildred  L.  Rutherford,  Atlanta. 
Geo.  Franklin  Pub.  Co.,  1899. 

The  South  in  History  and  Literature,  Ibid.,  1907. 

Living  Writers  of  the  South  —  J.  W.  Davidson,  Carle- 
ton,  N.  Y. 

Southern  Writers  — W.  M.  Baskerville.  Barbee  & 
Smith,  Nashville,  Tenn.,  1891. 

History  of  Southern  Literature  —  Carl  Holliday,  Neale 
1906. 

Library  of  Southern  Literature,  Bibliography,  1910. 

171 


APPENDIX. 

CRITICAL  AUTHORITY  REFERRED  TO  IN  GEORGE  W.  CABLE : 

I.  "  II  avait  horreur  de  la  critique  systematique,  qui 
enferme  le  critique  lui-meme  dans  les  formules  tou jours 
trop  hativement  arretees  et  tou  jours  trop  etroites  et  qui 
forcent    presque   a   prononcer    au    moins    *  in    petto,'    le 
judgement,   avant   d 'avoir  etudie  le  proces.     ...     II 
avait  1'amour  de  la  vie,  et  le  don  de  la  vie.     II  voulait 
voir  vivre  et  sentir  vivre,  comme  dans  commerce  intime,  le 
personnage    qu'il   etudiat   et   il    vivait   lui-meme   devant 
son  lecteur  d'une  vie  ardente  de  recherche  a  la  fois  fiever- 
euse  et  sagace." 

— "  Langue  et  Litterature  Francaise,"  Vol.  7.     Dix- 
Neuvieme  Siecle,  pp.  665-6. 

II.  "  La  question   de   1'art   pour  1'art.     —  En   quoi 
1'art  differe  absolument  de  la  science.     —  Comment  les 
conditions  memes  de  1'art  1'empechent  de  se  separer  de  la 
vie." 

— "L'Evolution    de    la    Poesie    Lyrique,"    Tome    I. 
Brunetiere,  p.  I. 


173 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 
TRANSYLVANIA  UNIVERSITY: 

A    NOTE    TO    JAMES    LANE    ALLEN. 

W.  K.  DOTY, 

Lately  Editor-in-Chief, 

University  of  Virginia  Magazine. 

Through  the  efforts  of  John  Filson,  the  first  historian 
of  Kentucky,  Lexington  became  the  permanent  home  of 
the  institution  in  1788,  where  it  began  its  career  as  Tran- 
sylvania Seminary  in  June  of  the  next  year,  and  where 
it  held  in  1790  the  first  College  Commencement  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley. 

On  September  the  first,  1791,  the  Reverend  James 
Moore,  who  has  been  immortalized  in  several  of  Mr. 
James  Lane  Allen's  stories,  was  elected  President,  or 
Master  as  the  office  was  then  called.  Three  years  later 
the  Reverend  Harry  Toulmin  (ancestor  of  the  author) 
succeeded  him.  Mr.  Toulmin  was  a  Baptist  Minister 
from  Virginia,  a  personal  friend  of  Mr.  Jefferson,  who 
strongly  recommended  him,  and  a  man  of  great  activity. 
He  was  an  author,  and  a  prominent  man  politically,  be- 
coming afterwards  Secretary  of  State  under  Governor 
James  Garrard.  In  addition  he  published  a  digest  of  the 

174 


APPENDIX 

laws  of  Kentucky,  and  was  made  a  United  States  Judge 
in  the  territory  of  Alabama.  Because  of  his  strong  Uni- 
tarian views  the  Presbyterians  withdrew  their  patronage 
from  Transylvania  Seminary,  and  established  Kentucky 
Academy.  Mr.  Moore  was  at  the  head  of  this  for  a 
time,  but  was  re-elected  to  the  head  of  Transylvania 
Seminary  to  succeed  Mr.  Toulmin,  who  resigned. 

Friends  of  these  rival  schools  at  length  brought  about 
a  reconciliation  between  them,  and  on  November  2nd, 
1798,  the  union  of  Transylvania  Seminary  and  Kentucky 
Academy  was  agreed  upon  by  the  trustees  and  the  two 
boards  drew  up  the  union  on  the  next  day,  which  was 
consummated  by  an  act  of  the  State  Legislature  on  De- 
cember 22,  1798,  the  natal  day  of  Transylvania  Uni- 
versity, the  first  institution  of  higher  education  in  the 
Mississippi  Valley,  or  west  of  the  Alleghanies. 

The  Reverend  James  Moore  was  the  first  President  of 
the  University,  as  he  had  been  first  Minister  of  the  First 
Episcopal  Church  in  Kentucky  or  west  of  the  moun- 
tains. After  the  war  an  attempt  was  made  to  make  it 
the  State  University  and  in  pursuance  of  that  effort  the 
name  was  changed  to  Kentucky  University,  but  the  plan 
was  not  successful,  and  in  1908  the  old  name  of  so  many 
associations  was  restored,  and  Transylvania  stands  to-day 
pre-eminent  in  Kentucky. 

175 


SOCIAL  HISTORIANS 

Most  conspicuous  of  the  eras  of  this  old  University 
have  been  those  under  the  control  of  Reverend  James 
Moore,  Horace  Halley,  Henry  B.  Bascom,  and  John  B. 
Bowman,  who  were  presidents  at  intervals  along  its 
romantic  course.  It  would  be  impossible  to  give  in  this 
note  all  of  the  illustrious  names  associated  with  Tran- 
sj'lvania  University.  Mr.  Allen  has  used  many  of  them 
in  his  charming  stories,  in  which  Transylvania  is  inex- 
tricably interwoven,  for  it  seems  that  every  great  name 
of  Kentucky  is  connected  also  with  her  oldest  University. 


176 


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